Nothing
by Bookfanic
Summary: Alternate Ending to my other story, Just Tell Me You Love Me Already. Love. Betrayal. Revenge. Bloodlust. Loss. Cato and Clove are in the 74th Hunger Games for the win, nothing will get in their way, nothing will stop them. Love is a powerful tool, it can make you happy or it can ruin you and Cato and Clove find out just how much the cost of their love is. Please Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

**Yay, here is my alternate ending to Just Tell Me You Love Me Already! I'm not done it yet, so I think that I can only post once, maybe twice a week. **

**Rated T for Cursing and Violence**

**Clove's POV**

We get to the woods outlining the Cornucopia about an hour after dark. There, we sit and wait for the sun to rise. We sit under the blanket I have, using the night vision glasses, we watch for any signs of movement, none appear. Though we have the blanket on, it is still freezing; we crouch very close to each other for warmth.

"Ok, so I go to the Cornucopia and you pace the perimeter for the other Tributes." I say.

"Why don't I go to the Cornucopia, and you walk around the forest line?" Cato asks.

"Because," I say, "It was my idea, SO I'm going to the Cornucopia."

"But it's more dangerous down there," Cato says, ugh not the protective boyfriend move.

"Exactly why I'm going," I say smiling.

"No, I-"

"Cato, I'm going down to the Cornucopia, you're going to be on the perimeter, I don't care what you say, that is how it's going to be, and you should listen or I swear I will knock you out during the feast time, and then you will be no help at all."

"No," Cato says insistently. "I'm going, and that's final, and if you try to argue with me then I'll knock you out."

"Real original." I roll my eyes.

Cato shrugs, "It's effective."

"Who says I'm not saying no?" I ask him.

"Well," He says pointedly. "You're not."

-0_0-

Telltale hints of the sun coming up are in the sky, it's beginning to turn a light orange in the distance. I pull my glasses off and stuff them in my backpack. Just as the first ray of sunlight hits the Cornucopia, there's a disturbance on the plain. The ground before the mouth of the horn splits in two and a round table with a snowy white cloth rises into the Arena. I wonder if you dig far enough, could you make it back to the catacombs, and out into freedom? 4 back packs sit on the table, the two largest ones are marked 2 and 11, and they are black. There is a medium sized green pack with the number 5 on it, and a tiny orange pack with the number 12 on it, the only thing that could probably fit in there is a syringe, medicine for Peeta?

As soon as the table clicks into place, a figure darts out of the Cornucopia and snags the green back pack. It's the girl from 5, clever idea; she was probably there right after the announcement, since we didn't see her all night. 5 is now sprinting across the plain into the cover of the woods. 5 has us all trapped here, she knows that none of us will risk losing what we need most to chase after her. 5 has purposely left the rest of the packs alone, if she'd grabbed another one then she'd defiantly have a pursuer, but now everyone is waiting for their chance to get their pack. I know that at least 2 other people are poised to run and get their packs at the moment, Thresh and Katniss.

"You ready?" Cato asks from my side, we never expected to catch 5 here anyway.

"When am I not?" I ask back, preparing myself to run after whoever shows up first.

Then she appears, sprinting for the table to grab her tiny bag; I emerge from the forest, running after her clutching a knife. Ugh short legs= have to run faster. Cato runs beside me, his spear is in his left hand and his sword in his right. I'm good at running yes, but right now it seems that Katniss's legs are 2x longer than mine, even though they aren't. I lift my first knife, aim and throw. It would have hit her too, but she deflects the knife with her bow. Next Katniss turns with a bow and shoots an arrow at me; I turn, though not fast enough to entirely avoid the arrow. It pierces me high in my left arm. Lucky I throw right handed, though, I can throw with my left too. I have to slow down to take the arrow out.

Cato slows down beside me, "You okay?" He asks.

I rip out the arrow from my arm and take in the severity of the wound, it's not death but it sure hurts like hell. "Fine," I say quickly.

Katniss is at the table now, fingers wrapping around her tiny bag, but I can't let her get away. I point to her, Cato immediately understands, we both sprint towards the girl on fire. I throw a knife; it hits her in the forehead, right above her right eyebrow. The gash causes blood to pour in to her eye and mouth, gross.

Katniss lets go of the readied arrow, but since there was blood in her eye, she couldn't aim right and misses me so badly Glimmer could've done better than her, and that's saying something. I can't even tell if she was aiming for me or Cato. I slam into Katniss; momentum helps me knock her to the ground. I perch on top of her chest, my knees pinning her shoulders to the ground, and my boots holding down her hands. "Where's Lover Boy?" I ask her, Cato is standing guard protectively over me.

"He's out there now, PEETA!" She screams. Slamming my fist into Katniss's windpipe I effectively cut off her voice. I whip my head around; he couldn't be healed could he? I know that if he is, that he will run to Katniss's aid no matter the cost, love is weird that way. But if Peeta were here, he'd be out by now, coming to save Katniss, since he's not here, obviously Katniss lied.

"She's lying," I tell Cato who is looking around so fast I'm afraid his head might fall off, "He'd be here by now if she was telling the truth."

Cato nods.

I grin at her to look menacing, though Peeta was actually a nice guy and I liked him. "He's nearly dead. Cato knows where he cut him." I don't know why Cato hadn't killed him, it's torture to leave someone to die like that. "You've probably got him strapped up in some tree while you try to keep his heart going." True Katniss did seem to have an affection for trees which was demonstrated by her running to a tree for help and climbing like 90 feet in the air. "What's in the pretty little backpack? That medicine for Lover Boy?" Ugh, my grammar… "Too bad he'll never get it."

I open my jacket, showing my collection of knives to Katniss. It's an impressive collection, I have them lining the front of my jacket, and I have my knife vest plus the belt. Katniss struggles to get out from under me; I can see a hint of fear in her eyes when she sees my blades. I have her firmly pinned on the ground, she knows she is going to die. "Forget it, District Twelve," I say. "You're dead, just like everyone else in this Arena, there's no point in struggling."

I pull a medium sized knife from my belt with a wicked sharp pointed blade. Katniss stares at me angrily. "I killed him, you know." She says.

I look at her surprised, "who?"

"1, I killed the boy from 1," She tells me.

"Oh, really? And how did you do that?" I ask her, maybe the audience will be amused by this conversation, somehow, I don't know, the Capitol is messed up.

"I shot him," Katniss says plainly and simply, like it was easy, but her expression says something different. "I shot him because he killed Rue."

"What?" I ask her surprised, I told him not to touch Rue, that bastard!

"Rue," Katniss narrows her eyes at me, I see pain behind them. "The girl from Eleven. We were allies."

"Well-" I begin to say, then I hear a yell. Quickly turning my head, I see that Thresh and Cato are near the now empty table. Thresh has his crescent sword and Cato is swinging wildly at him with his own sword. Katniss sees my distraction and struggles to get out from under me, but I have her firmly pinned down and she's not going anywhere.

In my slight distraction with Katniss, Cato is on the ground. Somehow, Thresh has gotten Cato's feet swept out from under him, Cato is lying on the ground, struggling to get up, but Thresh's foot in on his chest and his sword is raised to kill. "CATO!" I scream. Flipping off Katniss I sprint to help him. Before Thresh can even bring the sword down towards Cato, I raise my arm and throw the medium knife I had in my hand and it hits its target, Thresh's arm in which he holds his sword. He cries out in pain, not surprising, the knife looks like it has sunk possibly into the bone. Dropping the sword on the ground next to him (thankfully not on top of Cato), Thresh tries to pull out the knife. Big mistake. Cato is finally able to use his sword and cut through the leg right under the knee that is on top of him. Thresh is now in serious injury, there's no way he'll live now. I throw another knife; it hits Thresh in the stomach. Cato is up now, and in one swift fluid motion, Thresh's head falls to the ground.

A loud cannon blast sounds through the air. We started with 24, and now all we have left is 5.

**Sneak Peek to the next chapter on my website I'll be sure to post another chapter by next Saturday if not sooner. PM me questions, or DM me on IG, I will also post a sneak peek on my twitter (bookfanic) Also! Don't forget to review! The reviews are the things that just make me feel compelled to post more! **

**Xoxo ~Bookfanic~**


	2. Chapter 2: Armor

**Hey look a new update BTW love your reviews *tries to make a heart but on this website it only shows up as a 3***

**Clove's POV**

I hug Cato as soon as I reach him. "I thought you were going to die… I thought you were going to die…" I whisper quietly, shivering at the thought.

Cato seems frozen with surprise, but soon he hugs me beck, "I'm fine Clove, I swear."

I smile at him, "I can't imagine living without you." I tell him.

"I can't imagine living without you." He repeats, smiling.

"I…" love you… It's kinda awkward since Cato is holding a bloody sword in one hand and a headless limp body is lying on the ground next to us. Cato is looking at me expectantly. "Uh, we should probably…" I point to Thresh.

"Yeah," Cato says, nodding. Thresh has his backpack in one hand but I have no desire to take it, but I do take the black bag that says 2 on it.

Quickly unzipping the bag, I pull out a skin colored mesh from the bag. It's armor from the Capitol, expensive armor. It will protect us from Katniss's arrows.

"Do you know what this is?" I ask Cato, excitedly.

"Yes," Cato's tone isn't as excited as mine, but his expression is, but it has awe in it too. I pull the second mesh out; one is larger than the other so I expect that's Cato's.

I toss the larger one to him. And cock my head to the side.

Cato looks at me confused.

"Go in the Cornucopia and put it on, you blonde idiot." I tell him, smiling. "I'll stand guard to make sure no one sees you stripping."

"But-"

"Just do it." I tell him and push him into the Cornucopia. I lean against the entrance and look around for any unnatural signs of movement, there are none. The hovercraft has already come and taken Thresh's body. It took the claw 2 trips.

The sun is up by now, and just above the tree tops. The orange warm light fills me with happiness, I get to live another day.

Cato walks out from the Cornucopia, I can't even see the armor on him. "How does it feel?"? I ask.

"Just like an extra skin." Cato shrugs, "Your turn."

I make a stupid face and lower my voice, "But-"

Cato bats his eyelashes at me and says in a high pitched voice, "Go in the Cornucopia and put it on, you brunette idiot. I'll stand guard to make sure no one sees you stripping." Then he puts his hand on my back and propels me into the golden woven horn.

Once I'm in the horn, I pull off my jacket, vest, belt, and my shirt. It's then I realize that I still have a wound in my shoulder from where Katniss shot me. I look at it. There is dried blood around where I yanked the silver arrow out. I wince, remembering the pain. I take the 1st aid kit from my backpack (yep still wearing it) and pour alcohol on it (STINGS!) Then I add the medicine and bandage the wound before I put the armor on. There's a slight lump where the bandage is, but my jacket covers it. Joce is probably scolding me from 2 about that right now.

I walk outside the Cornucopia when I'm done changing. "You're right." I tell Cato .

He looks up, startled, obviously he didn't hear me coming out.

"Right about what?"

"It does feel like a second skin."

"When am I not right?" He jokes.

I roll my eyes at him, "all the time, actually."

"That was a joke," Cato says, still smiling.

"Well it wasn't a very accurate one." I say, flicking him in the head.

"Ow," Cato rubs the spot where I flicked him.

"Damn it, Cat. Now I'm going to have to comb your hair."

Both of us smile at the memory.

"Not if you can't catch me," Cato grins and takes off.

I sprint after him.

-o_o-

Eventually I tackle Cato the ground and we roll around laughing. If someone were to attack us right now, we'd be very vulnerable. Yes, I know, playing games in the Games, smart move. But really, who cares about smart? Fun is fun.

I stand up, brushing the dirt off my clothes. I offer Cato my hand, he takes it and I pull him up. "Where do we go next?" He asks me.

"Why Cato," I say, sounding 'disappointed', "I can't believe you'd ask that. We go hunting of course."

10 minutes later

Cato and I have filled and purified our water bottles, and we still have some of the turkey thing- wrapped in leaves- left over from other nights. It's not even noon yet, so we have plenty of the day left to hunt.

"You ready?" I ask Cato.

He snorts, "When am I not."

"Real original, Cat."

He shrugs.

I have almost all my knives, having picked up a few from the ground that I thrust at Katniss (the ones in Thresh I left there). One I had to clean up, since it had blood on it. Cato cleaned off his sword (which was already dry), though his spear remained clean.

"Let's go." I say, walking towards the woods, with Cato at my side.

-0_0-

There aren't any signs of anything in the forest besides the animals. No unusual foot prints or anything. 5 is clever she wouldn't leave behind a way to trace her, but Peeta and Katniss… Katniss seems intelligent, and so did Peeta. BUT Peeta has a bad leg, even with medicine it wouldn't heal completely for a while, plus he hasn't even had it in his system for 12 hours. Though, I have a feeling that Katniss did something to Peeta to go and get the medicine. He would never let her go into danger for him.

"So, kitty, who to go after? 12 or 5." I ask.

Cato looks surprised that I'd ask him, I can be a little controlling but I still ask opinions. Right? "12," he says after a moment's hesitation. "Because there are two of them and if she's trying to guard him then it will weaken her."

Him= Peeta her=Katniss .

This is actually a smart idea, if we get rid of 12, then only 5 is left. She's way to clever to be able to be found, unless the Game Makers drive us together, which they will if we're the last ones standing.

"Look for signs of anyone." I tell Cato.

"Well, duh, Clove, no I was inspecting my shoes for mud."

I punch Cato in the arm, "shut up."

"Ow, that actaually hurt." Cato complains.

"What? I didn't even hit you that hard. Wimmppyy." I taunt.

"No, look," Cato shows me his arm, there's a small dent in it, guess that was my ring, oops.

"Oh," I say sheepishly. "Sorry, forgot I was wearing a ring." Then I say, "The secret power to punching, wear a ring."

"Can I see it? The ring, I mean." Cato says.

I nod and hold out my hand for him to see. Cato takes my hand and looks at the sapphire ring.

"Is this your token? From 2?" Cato asks.

"Yes," I smile remembering when I got it. "Rose gave it to me, it was her early graduation from advanced class, ring."

"Pretty, but I've seen better."

I frown at him, "rude," I say.

Cato turns his head from the ring and looks into my eyes. Cato's clear blue eyes are so beautiful, they seem like they're digging into me, discovering all my secrets, and every part of me, some parts of me that I don't even know. "I was talking about you," he says. "You're the most beautiful thing that's ever lived."

I'm not sure what to say, besides, "did you just call me a thing?"

Cato laughs, when he laughs, it makes me smile. "So picky, Clove, picky, picky, picky. I'm trying to compliment you and be romantic."

"Yeah," I say casually. "But romance isn't really our thing."

Cato raises his eyebrows at me mockingly, "Oh?" He asks. "Then what is?"

"This," I stand on my tip toes and kiss him on the lips, a light soft kiss. "And this." I kiss him again. "and this." I kiss him again.

"Mm, you're right; I like this better than romance." He wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me; my lips open up under the pressure.

-0_0-

"Well that was an… interesting turn of events." I say, pulling on my boots.

"Unexpected," Cato agrees, pulling his shirt on.

"I really hope that the screens were on 12 for the last half an hour."

Cato shrugs, "I guess." He's now tying his left combat boot.

"You guess?" I ask him.

"Well, my friends-" Cato says grinning.

"Are perverts," I finish for him.

His grin turns crooked, "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Not guess, I can say that, we clarified that earlier."

"Ok," Cato laughs his beautiful laugh. "Whatever you say."

**Sorry if after they win the games it gets kida boring, I have to sorta give them their life back- THEN I can add the drama *wink* *Wink* hinting of things to come. Anyway I'm having a little writers block up ahead in the story so if you have any ideas.. wait no- you have no idea what happens after this anyway, well never mind. So I'm writing another little side story and I'm working on the summary I think this might be it, and I may or may not post it, I just want to see if anyone else thinks it sounds interesting. **

Clove Ravenna returns home from boarding school expecting her crown to be waiting for her arrival, but that's not what happens. In her absence, Glimmer has stolen her friends, throne, and life. But even as an ex-Queen Bee, Clove still is an expert on revenge. She has a plan to take back her throne, it's flawless. But there's only one thing that gets in her way, something that Clove didn't anticipate, her heart.

**Sound interesting? I have no idea, but I'm enjoying writing it. Anyway, I also have had an obsession with reading about Clato fanfictions in high school, know any good ones? Tell me! I'd love to read them. BTW don't worry, this little side story of mine isn't going to get in the way of me writing **_**Nothing **_**it's just I have writers block on that story so when I get writers block I usually just start another story and see how that goes. Sneak Peek on my website **

**Xoxo ~Bookfanic~**


	3. Chapter 3: Rain, Rain, and Rain

**Clove's POV**

The day is rather boring after that. No one shows up and nothing happens, beside that fact that it went from a sunny day to pouring rain in about 2 seconds. By the end, both Cato and I are in bad, wet, soaked moods.

"ALRIGHT!" I say finally. "WE ARE STOPPING AND I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HUNTING ANYMORE." It's really too bad that the tent blew up; we could really use it right now. I pull out the sleeping bag and set it on the ground. Cato and I climb into it, being under a tree hardly helps with the rain. We sit propped up against the tree together, looking at my watch, its 6; it has been raining since 3 this afternoon. I'll be lucky if I didn't catch any diseases from being out here.

"Ugh," Cato says grumpily. "Everything's too wet to light a fire."

Lightning strikes, it's rather close. I can't help but flinch from the loud noise and the bright light. Even though he's in as bad as a mood as I or worse, Cato puts his arm around me, for comfort. I snuggle my face in his shoulder, and the in that moment, nothing in the outer world mattered. Just being here. With Cato. And living.

Cato's jacket is a rain jacket, so the water was kind of making a puddle in his shoulder, but I don't care. It's rather lucky no one stumbles across our little area though, as sweet as we look now, I'm still in a bad mood, and stabbing someone to death Glimmer-style might lighten the mood.

"You go first." Cato says.

"What?" I ask him, confused.

"I'll take first watch," Cato tells me, "go to sleep."

"That's not fair I should-"

"Just take that damn favor, Clove and go to sleep."

I decide not to fight back; instead I lean my head on his shoulder and close my eyes.

-0_0-

**Cato's POV**

The rain is not helping my mood. It's been raining for hours now, what do the Game Makers think they're doing? The only thing that is making me happy right now, is the fact that Clove's here with me. Her head in nuzzled into my shoulder, and I can feel her breathing, and her heart beat, steady and calming. I have always noticed that whenever Clove sleeps, she always looks really peaceful, no sign of a smirk or anything.

It's cold out here with the rain to make us wet and the temperature drop, luckily the sleeping bag reflects heat, but we were already soaked to the bone. The anthem plays, and Thresh's face appears in the sky. I know I should feel regret from killing him, but I don't. He was just another step closer to home. I ignore the fact that he too, was a human being and maybe had a special girl back home.

-o_o-

No signs of any movement have happened my whole watch, not even animals, I mean there's the lightning and the rain, but other than that, nothing. The sky is darkened from all the dense black clouds, no sign that the moon and stars even exists. At 12, I gently shake Clove awake, "Hey, hey, knife-girl, your turn."

Clove groans, and opens her eyes. "Is it still raining?" she asks.

"No," I tell her. "The gods are just peeing." I get slapped in the arm for that, but it brings a smile to her face.

"Well," Clove says, properly propping herself up on the tree, I kind of miss the weight of her head on my shoulder, it was comforting. "You turn."

"huh?"

"Go to sleep you idiot, your no use if you fall asleep during the final show down."

"That's tomorrow?" I ask curious.

"No, probably not, but you never know, now shut up and go to sleep."

-0_0-

The show down is not the next day, or the next day. Finally on the fourth day does it actually stop raining, by then, Clove and I have a scarily low supply of food. That's when we decide to go 'hunting' which is where Clove throws her knives at things and I follow her and try to look manly. Clove gets one of the turkey-things, and 2 rabbits. I skin the rabbits whole Clove plucks the turkey-ish-thing. We decide to go back to the Cornucopia, it's an open landscape so we can see if anyone tries to sneak up on us. It's extremely hard to find any wood dry enough to light a fire, we find a few dry small sticks and that's it, so it's not enough to light a fire.

Clove decides to just cube the meat, and cook it when the wood has had more time to dry. So that's what we do, cut the meat into cubes then wrap it in leaves and put it in her back pack. We've pretty much given up on hunting, obviously the 3 others are well hidden so we are just going to wait and see when the Game Makers get bored.

"So," I say. "What are we going to do when we get back?"

"Well I'm going to spend time with my family."

"And."

"I probably will be with Joce and Shawna a lot too."

"I said we, what are we going to do," I say.

Clove seems to think about it for a moment, then she says, "Why don't we figure that out once we get back."

I don't want to drop the subject but Clove's tone makes it obvious that she doesn't feel like talking about it, I can't help but wonder why.

**BOOM! **

Both Clove and I jump to our feet, a cannon blast can only mean one thing, another tribute is dead. Who though?

I give Clove a questioning glance. She has that look on her face when she calculating something, figuring out an answer.

I hear her muttering stuff like, "Peeta…..Katniss…..5…" "couldn't have killed…." "smart….."

I see a hovercraft appear in the sky, I nudge Clove, we watch as the claw dips down into the forest. The body that is pulled into the sky is 5, her red hair glinting in the sun. I can tell from here that her body is emaciated, she was going hungry.

"Quick," Clove says, "If she's dead over there, that means 12 is nearby them."

Once I pull my sword from its sheath, Clove is holding a knife in each hand we take off into the woods, after Lover Boy and Katniss.

-o_o-

When we arrive to where we saw the hovercraft dip down, there are no signs of people, but there are a few berries in the middle of it. Clove leans over and picks on up, examining it. She mutters something I can't hear.

"What?" I ask her.

"Nightlock, this is Nightlock." She says.

"What's Nightlock?" I ask feeling stupid.

"It's a berry," well duh, "that if you eat it, it will kill you before it even hits your stomach."

"Oh," I say, these berries are a lot more dangerous than they look.

"Yeah," Clove says, "I guess that's how she died, but I'm surprised that she would even eat these." Clove is now rolling the small evil berry between her thumb and forefinger. "She seemed much too smart for that unless…." Clove trails off leaving me hanging.

After a while of waiting for Clove to finish the sentence, I ask impatiently, "Unless what?"

"Unless she was stealing someone else's food, and that someone else had gathered Nightlock, meaning that someone else would be near by." Clove says quickly.

"What?" I ask my brain confused.

"She must have stolen the Nightlock from 12, thinking it was safe to eat, maybe they knew she was following them so they set her up to eat the berries." Clove says at a more normal yet hurried pace. "That would mean that 12 is near here somewhere."

"Which means we should look around for them." I finish.

"Exactly."

Clove and I spread out to look around for any signs of other people, I'm about to give up when Clove calls, "Cat! I found something!" I rush over to where the sound of Clove's voice is coming from. She stands in another small clearing, there are slight foot indents in the ground, leading the opposite way that 5 was.

"Nice job, Knife-girl," I congratulate her.

Clove smirks, "I know."

We follow the tracks to a stream, where they end. I guess that 12 anticipated people following them, because in the stream, they'd be impossible to trace.

-0_0-

It's dark now and we haven't found another trace of 12, on the brighter side, the wood is dry enough to light a fire, so that's exactly what Clove and I do, and we cook the meat cubes on sticks like we're roasting marshmallows. After a while of idle conversation Clove says, "Cat?"

"Mmhmm?" I say, my mouth being stuffed by rabbit.

"You do realize what tomorrow is, right?"

"What?" I ask confused by the grave sound of Clove's tone.

"The Final Showdown," Clove says, the firelight shadows dance across her face. "That means at least two of us are going to be dead by dawn the next morning."

**To answer the question of when do I post. I'm going to try and post every Saturday, possibly I might post on Wednesdays too, but we'll see. So I will be posting at least once a week on Saturdays, but if you check back on Wednesday, that's probably the latest I'll post another chapter before Saturday. It's just I'm having writers block down the road in the story and I think that it could use some improvement in other parts too so idk when or how fast I can post these chapters. **

**Sneak peek on my website (link in bio) don't forget to review! They put a smile on my face every time! **

**~BOOKFANIC~**


	4. Chapter 4: The Final Showdown

**Cato's POV**

Clove has decided since it's our last night here, and possibly alive (though neither of us say it) that we should both get as much sleep as possible. She is snuggled, curled in a ball, against my chest. For once, we're not sleeping in the rain. I lie awake and think of the horrors to come tomorrow. Clove is always able to fall asleep quickly, whereas me, it takes a while.

The stars are in the sky, twinkling down at me, I wonder if they are real. I wonder if Solis is staring at the same stars back home in 2.

-0_0-

I wake up to Clove slapping my head. "Ow," I say rubbing it.

"Cato," Clove says urgently. "Get up. Now." I open my eyes, Clove is out of the sleeping bag and standing over me (one of the few times in life that happens).

"What?" I ask her, then I hear it, a growling noise, and it's getting closer.

I jump from the bag, pulling out my sword. A large red-haired mutt with brown eyes lunges at me from the forest, I swing my sword in an ark, cutting it in two. I quickly crouch down to pack up the sleeping bag, but Clove grabs my arm, she's staring into the woods.

"Forget it, Cat. We don't need it. We need to go. Now."

That's when I see it, there is a whole pack of the mutts, running towards us in the forest.

"Well this is going to be a fun day." I say sarcastically.

"I really need to give you a lesson on what 'fun' means." Clove tells me, before she grabs my hand and sprints in the opposite direction from the mutts, me running beside her.

-0_0-

We've been running for hours, whenever a mutt gets too close for comfort, it'll find a knife down its throat, or that its body is all the sudden cleaved in two. The sun is beginning to set, the soft orange color in the sky, but Clove and I have no time to pay attention to that, we have bigger problems. I know why the mutts are chasing us, Clove does too, it's to push us towards 12, for the showdown. No Capitol citizen will be able to tear their eyes from their screens, thus the Game Maker's jobs being done right.

"Cato!" Clove is gasping, she's out of breath, of course she is, since we've been running all day. "The Cornucopia, we have to go to the Cornucopia!"

I nod to show her I know what she said, we turn in the basic direction on the Cornucopia, and use the last of our energies to sprint there.

12 is already at the Cornucopia, near the lake. I ignore them, and make sure that Clove is still beside me. We both are running towards the tail end of the Cornucopia, the lowest part. I don't even see it coming, but a silver arrow flies through the air, towards me. I hear Clove scream out, but the arrow just bounces off my chest.

I totally forgot that we were wearing armor, like it feels so light it's like it is not there. "They've got some kind of armor!" Katniss shouts to Peeta.

Clove runs right between Katniss and Peeta, shoving them apart, I'm close behind. When we reach the edge of the tail, Clove jumps on, and I follow her, together we run to the very top of the Cornucopia, and collapse. Wow, once we get out of the games, we could try out for a track team and be champions. . I watch as Katniss sprints towards the Cornucopia, completely leaving Peeta in the dust, that proves her amount of love for him. Peeta is hobbling about 15 feet behind her, and the mutts are closing in on Peeta, fast. Katniss draws her silver bow and sends an arrow into the pack of mutts, killing one, one out of many.

Peeta waves frantically at Katniss, "Go, Katniss! Go!" That's real love, willing to sacrifice yourself for those who you love, not run away and leave them to handle certain death by themselves. To my surprise she listens to him and continues to climb the Cornucopia. If it were Clove on the ground there I'd be guarding her back and killing every single one of those damn mutts for trying to kill her.

At the top of the Cornucopia she is holding her hands, as if burnt, that's when I realize how hot the golden metal is, right now I'm lying on my side, gasping, and gagging over the edge. Clove is breathing heavily but it has lessened now. She pats my back and hands me one of our water bottles, I take a few good swigs of it before it's all gone. I hear a noise and see Katniss pointing an arrow at me; at least it's not Clove.

But then Peeta cries out in pain, and she turns to run and help him. He's at the tail end of the Cornucopia, just starting to climb. I don't see how they can't just jump, but then, they are from 12. "CLIMB!" Katniss yells to Peeta. No duh. She shoots an arrow and I hear one mutt die. Peeta has reached Katniss's feet and she is now pulling him up. Apparently she just remembers Clove and I because Katniss's head whips around and stares at us; I'm clutching my side (horrible cramp) and staring down at the mutts, Clove is doing the same minus the clutching her side, so pretty much she is staring at the mutts, but she looks up when I nudge her. Clove and Katniss are both staring each other down. "Can they climb it?" I ask it comes out along with coughs.

"What?!" Katniss yells, I was asking Clove, not you fire girl.

"He said, 'Can they climb it?'" thank you non-deaf one.

The mutts are putting their snouts on the horn and sniffing it, tasting the metal, and tasting the metal. They scrape their paws over the surface and then yip at each other like they have been doing for hours, some kind of communication.

One of them with blonde fur runs and leaps onto the horn. This mutt's back legs are powerful, since it lands just 10 feet below us. Something bothers me about this mutt, it looks…. Familiar. The mutt's pink lips are pulled back into a snarl, green eyes staring at the 3 of us. The mutt wears a collar like a creepy rabid dog; it is inlaid with jewels and has the number 1 on it.

"I don't think they can," Clove says quietly in my ear.

Katniss lets out a shriek; she shakily places an arrow in her bow and aims it at the mutt. The mutt is already sliding backwards, off the side of the Cornucopia. The sound of its claws scraping against the gold is like nails scarping against a blackboard, Katniss fires an arrow down the mutt's throat, its body twitches then it flops to the ground.

"Katniss?" Peeta grips her arm.

"It's her!" Katniss shrieks.

"Who?"

Katniss's head whips side to side as she observes the mutt pack, I look down at them, something does seem disturbingly familiar about them, especially a small one with glossy dark brown fur and green eyes, who is looking at me with its teeth bared in hatred.

"What is it, Katniss?" Peeta asks again.

"It's them." I hear her choke out. "It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and... All the other tributes."

"Oh, gods." I hear Clove gasp beside me.

Ah, so that's why the blonde one looked so familiar and gave me a weird feeling, that is how I imagine all my ex's (there are a lot) when they try to get back together with me.

I hear Peeta gasp. "What did they do to them? You don't think… those could be their real eyes?"

I don't know why Peeta is worrying about eyes, that would be the last thing I'd think about. The mutts attack the Cornucopia again; they are separated into 2 groups on each side of the horn, left and right. They keep jumping up, trying to get on. I hear Peeta let out a cry of pain, and see him yanked over the side of the Cornucopia. The only thing keeping Peeta up off the ground is Katniss's arm, but Katniss is struggling. I could easily push them both off and win, but that wouldn't be fair… would it?

"KILL IT, PEETA! KILL IT!" Katniss shouts, Peeta obeys and stabs the mutt in the snout, causing it to let go. Katniss hauls Peeta back up on top of the Cornucopia. I am still not on my feet yet, though I have managed to slow my breathing.

Katniss shoots the Thresh-mutt, he's gigantic. Clove is now standing, a knife in her left hand, she offers me her right and I take it, standing up, drawing my sword. Katniss and Peeta, after they both actually remember we're here, stand up. Katniss is holding her bow, and Peeta has a knife. It's two against two, an even (ish) fight.

Katniss aims an arrow at Clove this time, right towards Clove's head. She is not going to shoot Clove, we did not come this far, together, just to have Clove shot in the head.

I step protectively in front of Clove, but about a second after, Clove shoves me to the side. Katniss is staring confused at us, and Peeta has a confused yet understanding look in his eyes.

"Don't be an idiot, Cat." Clove mutters to me.

I wonder how fast Clove can throw a knife and duck. I nudge her and jerk my head towards Peeta, she seems to understand.

Katniss looks wildly from Clove to me, pointing the arrow at me then to Clove, like she cant decide who to shoot first.

"Now!" I yell.

Lucky Clove gets my meaning in a split second, Clove raised her knife and throws, then she falls to the ground with the speed and grace of a panther, the arrow barely misses her head. The knife, found its target, Peeta's good leg, the one that was not almost torn off by the mutts. The mutts, I just remembered them, they seem to be quiet, watching the show down that will end in death.

"Peeta!" Katniss cries out.

Clove takes this chance to lunge at Katniss, knocking her over. Peeta, who has lost all control over his legs, is lying on his back, I think he is trying to pull out the knife in his leg, but even if he does how is he going to stand up and rush to his love's aid?

Clove is now swiping madly at Katniss was a large knife, Katniss keeps blocking her attacks with the bow, but that won't work forever. There is one arrow left in Katniss's quiver, one chance left to kill one of us, then there's Peeta with his knife, but right now, he's no help for Katniss.

Shaking my head, I bring myself back to the real world, the one where my girlfriend is battling to the death and I'm standing there watching. I jump down and land next to Peeta, who has somehow managed to get himself sitting up, he's pulled out the knife from his leg. But now both of them are bleeding like crazy. Out of pity for him, I stop in front of him. Peeta glares up at me defiantly, a knife in both hands. I bring my sword down, and put him out of his pain.

**BOOM!**

A cannon blast sounds through the air. "PEETA!" Katniss screams, she struggles to get from Clove's grasp but Clove has her tightly in her grasp. Clove let's her go and run to her now dead District partner.

I give Katniss her moment with Peeta's body, everyone should be able to say goodbye, even if they were faking being in love. I walk to Clove and pull her into a hug. She rests her head on my chest.

Interrupting our brief second of peace, is a noise, we both turn our heads and see that Katniss has notched an arrow in her bow, her last arrow, and it's aimed for my head.

**Sneak Peek on my website! See you next Saturday if not sooner Don't forget to review! **

**~Bookfanic~**


	5. Chapter 5: Rule Change

**Claimer: I own the Hunger Games this is Suzanne Collins on fanfiction**

**haha Jk I wish otherwise I wouldn't have killed a bunch of people! **

**Batchgirl67: Yeah her brother can't either, lol**

**Clove's POV**

She is aiming her last arrow at Cato's head, a shot that will kill him, then it'll just be her and me left. No, I won't let that happen, I did not come this far to let Cato just die. I won't let that happen, he's too important to die, too important to just be...Gone. I take a knife from my sheath, now I'm the one with more weapons, making me the bigger threat; Katniss turns the bow to me. Cato takes a step closer to Katniss, who points the arrow at him, and then back to me, she's confused at who to kill.

Me! I want to shout at her, she should kill me; Cato deserves to get out of this hell. Out of all of us, Cato deserves to go home free.

I think of the time that Katniss dropped the tracker jackers on us, she deserves to die, right? She has a little sister, a family. I remind myself, we all have families and lives to get back to. My other part says. Yes, but her family needs her more than yours needs you. There are 3 of us left, if Katniss dies, that means two can live, if Cato or me die that means that only one can live, so really it'd be a waste of a life to spare hers, right?

I can't think like this, I have to get Cato home, no matter what the cost. I run at Katniss, she turns the arrow at me at lets it go. I duck, the arrow grazes my cheek, I can feel blood and the burning sensation coming from the wound. I jump towards Katniss, and tackle her to the ground (of the Cornucopia) just like I did during the feast. We roll on the Cornucopia, but the space is too narrow, and the next thing I know, I'm falling, and Katniss is with me, I can hear Cato yelling my name, and I briefly register that I fell off the Cornucopia, before I hit the ground.

Actually it's Katniss who hits the ground, I land on top of her (that's got to hurt) she groans. I jump up, the mutts circle around us, Katniss has no weapons left, she has no way to defend herself, but me, I have a jacket full of knives, and I'm ready to fight.

The first mutt to attack me is dead in a heartbeat, same with the second and the third. After I kill the fourth mutt, I hear a cry, Katniss has been using her bow to keep the mutts away from her, but I guess now they have realized that she doesn't have any weapons to kill them with, so they plain out start to attack her. The reason Katniss cried out, was that a mutt, I think that one is… Marvel? Has latched its teeth around her leg, and is dragging her towards the entrance to the Cornucopia. I know that the Game Makers will keep her alive for as long as possible, for the Capitols bloody entertainment.

I feel pity for Katniss, no one should die like that, I take the knife in my hand and line it up with my target. Then I throw it, and the next thing I know, there's a cannon blast.

Katniss is dead. Cato and I won. The mutts all seem to hear a call, since they all just leave and run into the forest.

A second later, Cato jumps down beside me, "Are you hurt?" he asks. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I tell him. Then I turn to face Cato, my eyes glistening with tears, "We won, Cat, we won."

-0_0-

We (as in I) decide to spend the night on the Cornucopia, just in case the mutts come back. I have a bad feeling, usually as soon as the last death happens the Games are over, but no announcement comes. I sleep snuggled at the very top of the Cornucopia, snuggled into Cato's chest.

When I wake up the next morning, the sun is shining and the bird chirping, but we're still in here, we're still in the Arena. Trumpets sound, is this where they tell us we win? I gently shake Cato awake.

"There has been a slight error; there is no way to change the Rules of the Games. We are very sorry for the mistake, and may the odds ever be in your favor." Claudius Templesmith's voice echoes.

I stare at Cato, he stares back, we both know what this means, only one of us can go home. Leave it to the Capitol to give us hope of both being able to go home, and then crush it.

I stand up, and Cato does too. I look at him, his beautiful blue eyes look into mine, this will be the last time I see them, there's only one choice for the winner of this. It has to be Cato, he has to win, there's no way I could go on living without him, especially knowing that he sacrificed himself for me.

But knowing Cato, he's thinking the same thing.

"Don't." I say.

"Don't what?" He asks.

"Don't play dumb," I say irritably. "Don't kill yourself."

"Right back at you." Cato says, his eyebrows raised.

"You deserve to live, Cat. Your family needs you." I tell him.

"No, they don't. They have Solis, I'm sure he'll grow up to be a promising son, and my father won't even notice I'm gone." Cato's voice is pained.

"Don't say that." I scold him. "you know that's not true. Of course your family will miss you."

"What about your family?" Cato argues back.

"My family," I say, "they'll survive without me. Rex and Rose are talented and my mother is at work more than she is at home anyway. I don't contribute anything to the house hold. You do, you help raise your little brother, and protect him from harm, think about it, Cat, Solis needs you, my siblings don't."

"Solis will get his own friends soon." Cato says, scowling. "He won't want an annoying overprotective older brother hovering over his shoulder all the time."

I stamp my foot on the ground (Cornucopia top) in annoyance "your family needs you, mine doesn't so you. Are. Going. Home. So stop arguing with me!"

"My family doesn't need me!" Cato yells back. "No one needs me!"

"I need you." I tell him.

"No you don't."

"Yes, I do. I need you if you die I'll die. I don't mean just physically but mentally too. I can't live without you!" I exclaim. "Can't you see that?!"

"You don't need me!" Cato is scowling ferociously now. "You can go home, back to 2 and find another guy! A better one, one that doesn't freak out at you and cut you!" I remember him doing that, but I told him I already forgave him for that.

"There's no way I could do that! There's no way to find a better boyfriend than you! You are the best there possibly is, there's no possible way I could ever replace you!"

"You need to let me go! I'm bad for you and you know it! I don't even know why your still here with me!"

"WHY DO YOU THINK?!" I yell at him, I'm yelling louder now, but I don't care.

"IF I KNEW I WOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT I DIDN'T! BESIDES-"

"I'M STILL HERE WITH YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! AND THERE'S NO WAY I'M LEAVING YOU BEHIND!" my voice echoes through the empty Arena. "SO YOU CAN JUST SHUT UP AND GO HOME!"

Cato looks surprised at my statement. "Clove…"

"No, don't Clove, me, you're going home and that's final. If you're going to kill yourself so I can go home, I'll kill myself too. So then there's no point in killing yourself, really."

"You are the most stubborn girl, did you know that?" Cato asks me.

"Well, duh." I tell him. "If you're going to die, I'm going to die also."

"Fine," Cato says, handing his sword to me. "Then we can die together."

I hand Cato a long sharp knife from my vest.

"You know," I say, grasping the sword in my hand. "This is probably the stupidest thing we could ever do, right?"

Cato holds the knife in his hand, "Yeah, but at least we'll be together."

"I love you," I tell him.

"And I'll always love you." He replies.

I stand up on my tip toes and kiss him on the lips, just a brief kiss though, so we don't get distracted from our mission.

"On 3 ok?" I say.

Cato nods.

"1…" Do I really want to die? "2…" If it means being with Cato yes. "3." I bring the sword towards my heart.

"STOP! STOP!" Claudius's voice rings throughout the Arena, it's panicky. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Cato and Clove of District Two!"

I look at Cato in surprise; he looks back at me with the same expression on his face. Neither of us were expecting to be stopped, we just wanted to be together.

A hovercraft materializes overhead and two ladders drop down. Cato and I each grab the first rung and the ladder freezes us there with its electric currents.

"We won, Cat, we really won." I say to Cato as soon as we're in the hovercraft.

**OK they won! I'm sorry if you get mad at me over this but two people **_**did **_**win, which means the Capitol will still be mad…. Just look at who are in this for a hint of what's to come… lol. Review! Feedback is amazing! Sneak Peek on my website ;)**

**~Bookfanic~**


	6. Chapter 6: Victory

**Cato's POV**

I can't believe it. When I proposed us dying together it was because I knew that there was no way getting past Clove and her stubbornness. I never thought that they would stop us, or make us both victors.

"We won, Cat, we really won." Clove says to me, she then hugs me tightly to her, like she never will let me go again; I never will let Clove go again either.

Doctors come out to treat us, Clove has more wounds than me, I just have a few scratches from running through the forest, whereas Clove, has a cut on her leg, her still-healing cut in her side, a cut on her face, and many scratches and bruises from fighting with the mutts. I wonder how she was even able to fight with that many injuries, and the answer is, because she's strong. Clove is a survivor, as am I.

I can't let Clove from my sight, so I insist on coming with her to get her treated up. The doctors give her medicine and heal her.

The next thing I know, we have landed on the roof of the Training Center. Clove is having some trouble, even though she acted like she was fine during the Games, it seems that the wound on her side has gotten infected and she needs treatment. Quickly. (A/N during Clove's POV the reason she doesn't mention it is because she's distracted about other things.) The next thing I know, Clove is being taken away, to have some type of special treatment, and I'm not allowed to come. I hurl myself at the door that they took Clove through, to try and shatter it, I can't leave Clove, we just won. I feel a needle jabbed into my back and then blackness closes in around me.

-0_0-

When I wake, I see that the entire ceiling glows with a soft yellow light, showing me that I'm in a room with a singular bed, and that's it. I look at myself next, I'm wearing a clean white shirt, jeans, and I'm clean. When I say clean, I mean that every last speck of dirt has been scrubbed off me. I sit up, pulling the covers off me, I get off the bed.

As soon as I do that, part of the wall I'm facing slides open and a Avox comes in holding a tray of food.

"Clove," I say. "Clove, is she alright?"

The Avox nods, she has red hair and looks friendly enough. She sets the tray down on the bed next to me, then leaves. I look hungrily down at the tray, I have a bowl of clear broth, a small serving of apple sauce, and a glass of water. Wow. I was expecting something a little more placebant for my first meal back in the Capitol.

But when I try to finish the meal, I can only eat half the applesauce. I wonder how long I've been out if my stomach is that small.

Thinking about it, there's usually a lag of a few days between the end of the Games and the presentation of the victor. I guess that's so they can make a starving, wounded, mess of a person back together again.

I know that somewhere, Alair and Lorena are talking together, making our full wardrobe for all the events until we return home. Ellen (Ew) , Brutus and Enobaria will be arranging a banquet for our sponsors, and reviewing our questions for our final interviews.

Then back home, 2 is probably arranging a gigantic welcoming home party for us, as every year there is a victor (quite often) we have a big party to celebrate. Home! Clove and I are going home! Together, we are going home together, the thought of it brings a grin to my face. A happy grin.

I sit up in the bed and walk around the empty room. Looking closer at my hands, I see that all the scars are gone, and there is not a single blemish on them. Wow, Capitol, you couldn't have handled one scar, could you?

I didn't notice this before. But lying at the foot of the bed is something that makes me flinch. The outfit that all the tributes wore in the Arena. I change into that then I walk over to the wall where the Avox came in and left out of. (A/N IK that Katniss was in there for more than one wake-up but I really wanted to get them back home.) The door opens suddenly, and I step through it, into a wide deserted hallway. I walk down the hall cautiously, like I'm still in the games, looking out for a threat to jump out from the wall and try to kill me. But no threat comes. At the end of the hall (once I get there) Ellen, Brutus, and Alair are waiting for me.

"Took you long enough," Brutus says smiling. I notice that Lorena isn't here.

"Is Clove ok?" I ask.

"Oh, she's fine." Ellen says, rolling her eyes.

"She's with Enobaria and Lorena, they want your reunion to be on live TV." Brutus explains. Ellen rolls her eyes at the word reunion. I have a feeling that if Chelsey liked Capitol weirdoes, her and Ellen would get along great. They'd probably start an anti-Clove club together.

"So when can I see her?" I ask hopefully.

Brutus laughs, "You can see her later, when you are with Caesar. Now go with Alair to get ready."

**Clove's POV **

I am wearing a teal silk strapless dress; it has a low-cut back and is very tight around my body. My prep team was so excited to see me. The whole time they 'fixed me up' they were talking about what they were doing at the time of the event. "Oh I just got my eyebrows dyed" "I wasn't even awake yet" "Yeah Ernesto had just puked all over Lara" but thinking about the dying children in there, no that would be a waste of time.

I am wearing long black heeled boots with the dress, and my prep team has pulled my hair back into a bun on my head, with like a $900000000000 hair pin that is white-gold with diamonds on it, lots and lots of diamonds.

I noticed that there is extra padding in my dress, when I asked Lorena about it, she said that the Game Makers wanted to alter me surgically, but then Enobaria and them got in a huge fight, so that was the compromise. I'm glad that I'm not surgically altered.

Lorena has a minimal amount of makeup on my face, just a little bit of blush and a peach lipstick. A clear nail polish coats my nails and the dress is rather short for my liking. I look like someone who is attending a fancy party, but also is ready to go kill somebody (probably that part comes from the long boots plus my facial expression)

We (Lorena, Enobaria, the prep team and I) take the elevator to the room where we trained, it is customary for the victor to rise up onto the stage along with their support team. 1st the prep team, then the escort (who unfortunately is with Cato), then the stylist, the mentors, and then finally the victor. But since this year there are 2 victors they have to change the whole thing.

I find that I am standing in a poorly lit area under the stage. A brand-new metal plate has been installed to transport me upward. You can still see the piles of saw dust, and smell the paint. I can see in the dark lighting that there is a makeshift wall about 10 feet away from me. I know that Cato is behind it. My heart yearns to rip through the wall, and to just be with Cato, then, there and now. I can hear the screaming Capitol citizens from down here, they're quite loud. I don't notice that Enobaria is here, until she touches my shoulder. I jump about 3 feet in the air.

"Calm down," Enobaria says, it doesn't really help when she smiles since her teeth are sharpened. "It's just me. Now let's have a look at you, shall we?"

I'm surprised she's saying this, but obediently I hold out my arms and turn in a full circle once.

"Good enough," she sighs. I wonder why. "How about I give you a hug for good luck."

"Um ok."

Enobaria wraps her small but muscly arms around my neck, of course, she's leaning over. "Listen up, you're in trouble. The Capitol is not happy about that stunt you and Cato pulled in the Arena. The one thing they can't stand is being laughed at, and right now, they're the joke of Panem."

I shiver, "So what do I do?" I ask quietly back.

"You are in love, I know the both of you are, so act that way, you were so madly in love that you weren't responsible for your actions."

"Did you tell Cato this?" I ask.

"Brutus is doing so at this moment," she reassures me. "Just act like you usually act around each other but just be more so in love." I'm not sure if we can be any more in love than we already are, but I nod.

Enobaria lets go of me, and says "Better get in our places." Then she disappears into the gloom.

I shift my feet from side to side nervously. I can't show my love for Cato in words, for us, it's in our actions for each other. Like being willing to die to be together. If only they hadn't stopped us, and we were both dead, then there wouldn't be any problems with rebellion. If any of the two of us are going to suffer, it should be me, I should have just killed myself and gotten it over with, but honestly I'm afraid. I'm afraid of death, of the afterlife, of judgment.

The anthem booms in my ears, and I hear Caesar Flickerman greeting the audience. Does he know how crucial every word will be from now on? I zone out until I can feel the plate lifting me onto the stage, the first thing I see are blinding bright lights. The next thing I notice it the roaring of the crowd. Then I see him, Cato, he stands just a few yards away from me, he looks very clean and handsome. I don't care what he's dressed in though, he will always look beautiful to me, no matter what. "Cat!" I exclaim, a girly smile on my face, I run to him and fling myself into his arms, kissing him on the lips like I've so wanted to do for the past 24 hours I've been awake. Cato holds me, bridal-style on the stage, and we kiss, that part isn't an act, I can tell that Cato has missed me too. It's Ellen who interrupts us, she stomps up on her 90 inch heels and shoves us towards the Victors chair. Usually this chair is a singular ornate chair but now that there are two of us, it's a love seat. A Red velvet one. Cato carries me to the seat, and I sit with my feet up on the seat, practically on top of Cato. His arm is around me, and I lean my head on his should, I 'smile' happily like there is no other place I'd rather be, though there are a million of them.

Caesar makes a few jokes, and then it's time for the show, which lasts exactly three hours, and is required for the viewing of all Panem. As the lights dim, the seal of Panem appears on the large screen in front of us. I don't want to see this. I don't want to watch 22 people die, I don't want to see myself killing others, the first time was enough.

Condensing the events of the last few weeks into 3 hours is quite the accomplishment. The first fifteen minutes is centered around the pre-Arena events, us volunteering, the tribute parade, the training scores, and our interviews. Then the Arena, the bloodbath is in kind of a slow motion, going from the dying tribute to us, the dying tributes, to us. It shows me and Cato 'fighting' as a kind of flirting, and then it shows me glaring at Glimmer every time she so much as looked at Cato, ok that did happen. Then it shows that after Katniss dropped the Tracker Jackers on us, it shows that I am constantly checking to make sure Cato's still with me. It shows Cato waking up, and screaming my name in the forest. It shows the kissing, and it shows that 3 had interest in me. I honestly didn't realize that until he had kissed me. It now shows Cato giving 3 murderous glares. I find it funny that they included the part when Cato and I were getting the Tracker Jacker leaves. It shows me and Cato swimming together, me comforting Cato about the supplies, and then it cuts to when I light the fire and Cato seeing the fire and coming straight to me. Apparently us sleeping together in the sleeping bag is adorable, since all the audience does awes when that happens. I watch our argument before the feast and how I jumped up right away, off Katniss, to save Cato. It shows all the good parts about out 'love in the Arena' skipping all the negativities. The 74 Hunger Games final video has been turned into a romance movie. The video ends not when Claudius announces us victors, but Cato trying to break open a door to get to me.

I turn and look at Cato, my eyebrows raised, he just leans down and kisses me, his lips are soft.

After the anthem plays yet again, we rise as President Snow himself takes the stage, followed by a little cushion that holds a singular crown. I am still clutching Cato's hand as Snow gives the crown a twist and separates it into two halves. He places the first on Cato with a smile, and he's still smiling when he crowns me, but his eyes say another story. Cato tightens his grip on my hand, telling me that Snow had given him this look too. We are both to be punished. We are going to be punished by the punishment of each other.

After getting crowned, Cato and I are whisked to Snow's mansion where the Victory Banquet is held. Technically it could also be called a taunt-you-with-food-but-not-let-you-eat-banquet-sine-so-many-people-talk-to-you-and-want-to-get-pictures-with-you but I guess that name is a little long so it's called the Victory banquet.

We get back to the 2nd floor of the Training center just as the sun is beginning to rise. I think that I will finally get some words alone with Cato, but that's not the case, Brutus escorts him to his room and Enobaria and me to mine. "Why can't I just talk to him?" I complain.

"Plenty of time for that when we're going home. Go to sleep, you have your interviews at 2." Then Enobaria leaves.

-0_0-

I awaken to see 3 excited faces standing over me, smiling. I scream, then I realize that it's my prep team, ugh. Finally after hours of 'prep' Lorena comes in and shoos out the prep team, she dresses me in a soft green dress and sandals. She personally puts on my make-up so I look like I have a soft happy glow around me, "Now," Lorena says. "Smiling never killed anyone you know."

**You know what? Right now I'm writing a part about Clove's friend, Jocelyn (Remember her?) I like her character. Lol. Sneak Peek on my website; don't forget to review and all that stuff. (link in bio) Still having a little writers block on the next part I'm writing. But like I said before, 2 people still won, so the Capitol would be mad right? So like Cato and Clove **_**could **_**have started the rebellion. **

**BTW I forgot to say, if you ship Glato or Kato then you should leave since this is a Clato fanfic (Um, if you do ship them not sure why you're reading this far, lol. Interesting fact about me: I say lol way too much, sorry. I'm trying as hard as I can to finish nothing A.S.A.P but yeah, writers block is annoying! But I have a rather funny line of Jocelyn's in a part I haven't gotten ton yet, but am going to add in when I get there. Wow, did I just say rather? Lol (See there it is again.)**

**Anyway, I'm probably boring you so, see you on Saturday, (wait that's actually kinda stupid, I don't actually see you….) because instead of posting on Saturdays and Wednesdays, I've decided to post on Tuesdays and Saturdays. **

**Also there has been some really weird weather going on around where I live lately. So if I don't have internet on Saturday I'll post as soon as I get the chance.**

**Another thing! I am still having writers block (this stuff is severely annoying isn't it?) So yeah…..**

**~Bookfanic~**


	7. Chapter 7: Homecoming

**So sorry I'm posting so late. I felt really sick this morning so yeah, I forgot to post, but no worries, I feel better now **

**Homecoming**

**Clove's POV**

The interview takes place down the hall in our sitting room, there are lots of cameras around the room. Caesar hugs me when I come in. "Congratulations on winning Clove. How are you faring?"

"Fine," I say cheerily, it doesn't sound right in my voice.

Then Cato appears in the doorway across from me, wearing a shiny black suit. I run over and kiss him, as I did last night. We sit together, somewhat formally on the red love seat that has been moved to our floor. Caesar, who is still smiling at us says, "Oh, go ahead, snuggle up with him if you want, you two look very sweet together."

I tuck my feet up on the couch and lean my head up and kiss Cato, whose arms are around me.

"Alright, alright," Caesar's smile is in his voice. "Now, you two, we have a limited time for this interview."

I giggle, and say "Sorry Caesar."

"No, no," he's still smiling, it's a little scary. "It's quite all right. But we have some questions to get to. First of all, how long have you two been dating?"

"Well," I say. "We've been dating since the first night of training, Cato leaned down and kissed me and then I discovered that I wanted to be more than just friends with him. I mean, can you blame me though? Look at him."

Caesar laughs. "Cato, how long have you liked Clove?"

"I've liked her for years," Cato says, really? "I first noticed her when she got into the same class as me, and the more I watched her grow up, the more I realized I was in love with her. I volunteered to make sure that Clove stayed safe in the games and to actually meet Clove, since I'd never had the courage to talk to her."

"So what made you kiss her?"

"Well she looked so beautiful and I just couldn't help it." Cato says. "I was worried she'd end my friendship, but when I went to talk to her, she kissed me, I was shocked. Shocked that someone like Clove could possibly like me. But she did, and that was one of the happiest days of my life."

Caesar smiles at the story. "In the Arena, it felt like there was defiantly some tension, what do you two have to say about that?"

"Well, Glimmer,"

"That 3 kid." Both Cato and I say at the same time, then I playfully punch him in the arm.

"I'm going first, Cat." I tell him. "So Glimmer was rubbing up on Cato an unnatural amount and honestly I didn't like it, he is and was my boyfriend."

"Then there's 3," Cato cocks his head sideways and looks at me. "Clove suggested we let him into the Alliance and refused to not let him in, and then he gets this huge crush on her and kisses her."

"But we're here, together, now, and that's all that matters" I say smiling at the cameras. I kiss Cato again.

"What did you feel when you heard that both of you could win?" Caesar asks.

"Well, I felt like the world could be mine," Cato says. "Like someone just handed me $400,000,000 and told me I could do whatever I wanted with it."

"Hey, are you comparing me to $400,000,000?" I ask Cato.

"Um, maybe." Cato says.

I shake my head, smiling. Leaning toward a camera, I say, "Cats these days have no brains." Then I turn to Cato, "But they look extremely cute."

The whole interview goes on like this, with me and Cato kissing every now and then. Finally when it's over, Cato and I walk up to Brutus and Enobaria, "good?" I ask quietly.

"Perfect." Enobaria tells me.

-0_0-

The train ride back, Cato and I spend most of our time talking in my room, about well, what's going on.

"I know this is going to sound wrong," I say. "But I kind of wished that we had died, so we wouldn't have to go through all this. So you wouldn't have to go through all this."

Cato smiles sadly, "I've thought the same thing…"

"But I guess if we both mysteriously die or disappear they'll take it out on our family and friends." I say, what have we gotten ourselves into?

"Or anyone we've ever spoken to," Cato adds.

"Where would we go anyway?" I ask glumly.

"We can go anywhere really," Cato says in a dreamy voice, looking out the window at the fast-moving landscape.

"No we couldn't." I say, "The Capitol would find us, and torture us, make us an example."

"What if there was no Capitol?" Cato asks me.

-0_0-

What if there was no Capitol? That question keeps replaying over and over in my head. I lie awake, my head on Cato's chest, his arms are wrapped fiercely and protectively around me, I'll be surprised if he even lets me talk to any of the other boys in 2.

If there was no Capitol there's be no Hunger Games, and no yearly arranged deaths. Really, the world would be better without the Capitol. And that's when the idea begins to form in my head, if all the Districts united, there'd be enough force to stand up against the Capitol, and take it down.

-0_0-

We're here, we're finally home. As I step out of the train, hand-in-hand with Cato, I see the cheering crowd of people from 2. My eyes search around, and I find Joce, Shawna, and my family, they all have big grins plastered to their faces. Cato and I raise our held hands and show the screaming crowd that we're a team.

The Peace Keepers have to make a fenced off area so Cato and I can actually get through the crowd to the Justice Building.

In the Justice building, we get the information on where are houses are in the Victors Village and we have to sign some papers for them to. Cato and I now live next to each other, house wise. We walk hand-in-hand down the street to our houses. We could have taken a car, but it wouldn't have felt right.

As soon as we open the door and turn on the lights in my house, we see... Joce, Shawna, my mom, sister, and brother.

"Surprise!" Joce says. "Your big party is tonight, but we figured you should have a smaller one first just to get used to it.

"Uh-huh," I say. "More like you wanted more of a chance to get drunk."

Joce smiles and hugs me, "I missed you so much."

"Me...Too….kind…of….dying…here….Joce."

"Oh," Joce let's go of me. "Sorry. It's just, you've grown!"

"I'm pretty sure I'm still at least 14 inches shorter than you."

"Maybe she means mentally grown," Shawna says, stepping in-front of me.

Before I can stop myself, I practically leap on Shawna, hugging her.

"Welcome home, Clove," Shawna says.

"I've missed being home so much," I say, I can feel tears burning in my eyes.

"Looks like you got something else while you were out too," Shawna whispers in my ear, I can feel the heat rising to my face.

Cato is still standing there awkwardly in the doorway.

"Um, guys, this is Cat- I mean, Cato, my uh- boyfriend." I say, how do you really introduce your more-than-boyfriend to your family that they've never met before and probably watched you go all the way?

Rex is giving Cato the stare-down I guess maybe there is a little bit of the over-protective brother that I've always wanted in there, only when I didn't want one though.

Rose is the first of my family members to unfreeze, apparently little Clove having a boyfriend is astonishing. "Nice to finally meet you, I'm Rose." She walks forward and holds out her hand, Cato takes it, though awkwardly.

"I'm Clove's mother," my mom says, I can literally see from the look in her eyes that she was watching that part of the Hunger Games.

"Rex, and if you don't treat her right, I'll kill you," somehow he manages to make that sound pleasant.

"Not if the Capitol gets to it first," Cato mutters so only I can hear him. I elbow him, hard, in the stomach; Cato falls to the ground clutching his stomach.

I smile nicely at my family and friends' shocked faces. "So what were you saying about a pre-party?"

**Yayyyyyy they're home. Sneak Peek on my website and what not. Cya Tuesday. **

**Xoxo ~Bookfanic~**


	8. Chapter 8: Victory Party

**Lol sorry about last time I posted, I'd gotten pretty much the whole week off of school due to snow, so I got Friday and Saturday mixed up. **

**Clove's POV**

_2 hours later_

It feels like I'm the only one here that isn't slightly drunk, my mom left early, I guess it's because parents aren't really supposed to get drunk with their kids. I was never particularity into the burning taste of alcohol. I sat this whole time and pretty much watched them all drink out their conscious. It seems that I, the one who should have needed to get drunk (besides Cato) am not interested in losing my conscience like the rest of those idiots.

The party-party part is in 5 minutes and I'm trying to get everyone to leave my house. It's rather hard. Anyway, the party is at the Training area, throughout the whole building. It's going to start as soon as the victors go in it, but it won't start at all if I can't get Cato out the door.

"C'mon! There's a whole other party for us!" I try to pull Cato's hand towards the door, but he refuses to budge.

"Noooooooooooooooooo," he says hazily, "I wanna stay here, screw other party."

I roll my eyes, "If you don't come with me, I'll, I'll, knock you out and carry you there bridal-style."

Apparently, drunk Cato is still embarrassed by a little 15 year-old girl carrying him bridal-style around town, since he immediately stands up from his chair and walks with me to the door. Joce is passed out on the floor, and Shawna is poking her, giggling. Rose is puking in the bathroom, and Rex, I have no idea where he went.

"Going to the main party!" I tell them, "Cya there if you go!" and as a second thought I say, "Make sure you clean up, I want it to look as nice as you found it when you got here!"

"Byeeeeeeee," Cato waves at them, smiling. Ugh, keep all alcohol away from Catos young and old.

I pretty much drag Cato along the street to the Training Center, I wonder how much of this he'll remember tomorrow morning.

We open the bug glass double doors to the training room, a spot light shines on us, and everyone (pretty much our whole District) cheers. Then the music starts playing and it goes crazy in a matter of seconds.

"Cato!" "Cato my man!" A group of Cato's friends are over at the bar, and it seems that somehow they're already drunk too. Cato tries to go to the bar and join his friends, but I pull him back, "Can you just stay with me?" I ask him.

Cato looks confused, and then he points over to his friends.

"Please?" I ask.

Cato nods.

As soon as I let go of his hand, he bolts to his friends.

I roll my eyes, "Drunk Catos are assholes." I mutter.

Walking around the Training Center, I see that in the floor where the beginners class is, there are a bunch of children being babysat (2nd floor), then in the middle classroom, there's a bunch of food (3rd floor), and in advanced class (the 4th floor) there's a whole other dancing party.

I go back to the middle class room and sit in a darker corner, next to the dessert table.

-o_o-

Two hours later

I have eaten a LOT of sugar-ized foods, along with about 900 cups of soda. I hope no one has noticed me back here, Clove, winner of the 74th annual Hunger Games is pigging out in the back of the food room, avoiding all life. I can see the headlines now.

I decide to go back down to the main room (where the main part is), Cato and friends are passed out at the bar, and the bar tender is trying to push them out of the bar, without leaving it; I decide to do the nice thing and help him out.

"Here," I say, grabbing one of Cato's friends' wrists and pulling him off the bar stool; he lands on the floor with a THWACK.

"Thank you, they've drunken over half the liquor stock." The bartender says.

"Don't worry," I say, "I can get them outside."

The bar tender looks up, surprisingly he looks kind of around my age, "Oh my gods! Clove!" He wipes his hand on a towel and holds out his hand for me, I take it.

"So, obviously, you know my name, you are?" I ask.

"Ethan," he says, "you don't recognize me?" He sounds a little disappointed.

I shake my head.

"I'm in the Advanced Class with you?"

I still give him a blank look.

"You helped me train when I was getting behind?"

"Oh!" I say, "Ethan, yeah sorry, I kind forgot about that."

About a year ago, Ethan (who is roughly 1 ½ years older than me) came to me for help, he was getting behind in class and they were threatening to bump him down a level if he didn't improve. So he like came to me during lunch and asked to talk to me alone (Joce and Shawna were very curious about that) and then he begged me to help him. I remember sneaking into the training room with him every night for about a month and training him with assorted weapons.

Ethan's specialty now is knives, guess it was because I trained him. He, of course, is nowhere nearly as good as me, but he probably comes in like 3rd or 4th in the best knife throwers in the class.

"It's ok," Ethan says he has emerald green eyes, and ink black hair; he's a pretty nice guy. "You've had other things to worry about lately."

"Yeah, I guess so." I say, thinking of the Captiol's wrath.

"Oh, that's Cat, right?" Ethan points to Cato, who's still passed out on the bar counter.

"Cato," I correct him, it's weird to hear someone else call Cato my affectionate nick-name for him.

"Yeah, he was talking about his girlfriend," Ethan informs me.

Oh, joy, he's drunk. "What did he say?" I want to know.

Ethan suddenly looks uncomfortable. "Eh, nothing."

"Tell me," I say sharply.

"Maybe that he liked the way that you kissed, kinda went into detail about that."

"Ugh, I'm so going to kill him tomorrow," I roll my eyes.

"Do you need help getting them outside?" Ethan asks.

"Nah, I got it, thanks for the offer." I smile at him. "See you when class is back on."

15 minutes later

Cato and four of his friends have now been successfully dragged outside (the festivities have also made their way out and now the whole street is blasting with music) I wonder what I should do with the 5 limp drunk bodies; they can't lie in the road forever.

Since I don't know where his four friends live, I take them to the bus bench and prop them all up, so it looks like they're just sitting with their eyes closed, instead of being passed out from drinking too much. Next I carry Cato (over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, a really big, humanoid, heavy, sack of potatoes with a very cute face) to his house. I pull the keys from my pocket (we exchanged keys) and unlock the front door.

It's dark inside, flicking on the lights, his house looks a lot like mine, but without a passed out Joce on the floor.

I carry Cato up the stairs (H-E-A-V-Y) and find the master bed room, I put Cato in the bed, and put the covers up around him. I walk down the stairs to the kitchen, I look through the cabinets until I find the glasses, getting a medium-sized glass, I fill it up to the brim with water.

I put the glass on the bedside table next to Cato, and 2 caplets of pain reliever for his hangover that's sure to come tomorrow morning. Then I leave, and return to the festivities, though my heart isn't really in it.

-0_0-

**Cato's POV**

I wake up with a horribly painful headache. Where am I? The last thing I remember is drinking some of the expensive liquor from 2, with Jocelyn, Clove's friend. Looking around, I see that I'm lying in a gigantic bed, in a humongous room. There is a full glass of water and 2 caplets of medicine beside my bed. Did I put that there?

I down the caplets in one large gulp of water. I guess maybe I should have looked at what they were, but my head hurts too much to be thinking of anything really.

I swing my legs over the bed, I'm wearing the same clothes as I got home in from the Capitol, except the front of the shirt and pants are dirty, like I've been lying face-down in the dirt.

I climb from the bed, and go to my closet, it's just like the one at the Capitol, pick your outfit out, blah, blah, blah.

Grabbing my clothes, I jump into the shower, it's nice to be home again, though, it would be nicer if I could remember half of yesterday. The hot water runs down my back, and the steam rises in the air around me, clearing my nostrils and making my head feel slightly better. I puke around the middle of my shower, after that, I feel better.

After I'm dressed, I walk down to the kitchen, by now I've guessed that I'm in my house in the Victors Village, someone must have brought me here last night- most likely Clove – after I passed out. I eat a bowl of Frosted flakes quickly, then I step outside, it's about 8 in the morning. The cool air feels refreshing in my lungs. I stretch, and then I walk about 15 yards over to Clove's house.

I knock on the door, but when no one answers, I take the key out to her house and unlock the door. The main room is all cleaned up from last night, except for the fact that Jocelyn is sleeping face-first on the floor; Shawna is on one of the couches, and Rex in the other. Rose is curled up in a comfy looking blue chair by the empty fireplace. They are all so peaceful looking, except for Jocelyn, I can't even see her face, she might be dead, I can't tell.

The door opens behind me, and Clove walks in. She's wearing a loose sports shirt and shorts.

"Hey," I say to her, she ignores me, and walks towards her kitchen.

I follow Clove into it and she grabs a glass from one of the cabinets, fills it with water, and chugs it down in about 2 large gulps.

"Hey," I say again, and again, Clove ignores me. "Did I, uh, do something wrong?" I ask.

"I don't know," Clove replies stiffly, "did you?"

"Ugh, it's so annoying when you reply my questions, with questions," I complain. "As usual, if I knew would I ask?"

Clove just evil eyes me.

"If I did something wrong, could you tell me so I can apologize?"

"Maybe last night you went into full detail on how well I kissed. Or maybe you didn't."

I groan, "Oh, gods."

"Yeah, and as much as I love you telling your drunk friends about my kisses, I'd rather you didn't."

"I'm sorry, Clove, I promise never to do it again."

"You better not," Clove says.

"Please forgive me?"

Clove studies me for a few seconds then says, "Ugh, how can I say no? You look all cute standing there asking for forgiveness."

"When don't I look cute?" I ask.

"Good point," Clove says.

**Might get a little…. Odd from here since I kinda have writer's block and am coming up with random ideas, sorry. **

**~Bookfanic~**


	9. Chapter 9: Home

**Cato's POV**

Clove goes up to her room to get changed, then we go on a walk around 2, leaving her sleeping family and friends in peace. The sun has just peeked over the mountains, and the yellow rays bathe us in warm sunlight.

"So," I say, "We're finally home."

"Finally," Clove repeats.

"I never thought that we'd be able to get back, together."

"Ditto, but I'm kind glad we did."

"I'm kinda upset too," I say.

"Well, duh." Clove replies, "but at least we still have each other."

I smile, "That's better than any prize I could ever win from the Capitol."

"Well, could you get someone as beautiful, talented and skilled as me from anywhere?" Clove asks, smiling.

"I guess not," I tell her.

-0_0-

Clove and I walk hand-in-hand down the street. The sun is refreshingly warm and the trees are all oranges, reds, and yellows, there isn't a cloud in the sky. Clove shows me to the bench in the park- her favorite thinking spot. We sit together on in silence for a while. Not an angry silence, but a peaceful one. Clove's head is rested on my shoulder and the leaves are falling all around us, it's beautiful. "Cat-" Clove begins to say.

"Hey! Clove!" A boy with black hair and emerald green eyes is waving at Clove from across the fountain. Clove lifts her head back up, smiles, and waves, to my disappointment, the boy comes over.

"Ethan," Clove stands up. "How was the rest of the party?"

"Well, it's pretty boring when all you're doing is serving drinks." Suddenly the boy- Ethan- seems to notice me. "Cato? Right?"

"That's me," I stand up.

"Wow," Ethan looks me up and down; he seems to be sizing me up. "You look different when you're not passed out and drunk."

Clove seems to notice me evil eying Ethan, because she jumps into the conversation, "Cato this is Ethan, Ethan, Cato."

"How do you two know each other?" I want to know.

Ethan kind of blushes and Clove kinda looks down.

"Have you two… dated or something?" I ask.

"No, no," Clove says hurriedly, she turns to Ethan, "Can I tell him?"

"Yeah… I guess." Ethan's tone says he would like nothing less than Clove telling me how they know each other.

"Ok, well, a little over a year ago…." Clove tells me that Ethan came to her for help training in weapons because he was getting behind in the advanced class, and he would be soon bumped down a class if he didn't improve (ha). Clove agreed to help him, and they snuck into the training room every night until he got the hang of using weapons. Ethan's best weapon are throwing knives. Though, he's pretty good with a spear and a sword. I can't help but feel like it's 3 all over again—Ethan likes Clove, Clove doesn't know Ethan likes her.

"Want to join us?" Clove asks Ethan. It's fine, I reassure myself, they're just friends.

"Ah, I shouldn't, my dad will be looking for me to help him out this morning," Ethan says, scratching his neck.

"Oh, well," Clove says. "Another time, right?" no.

"Yeah," Ethan grins, his teeth are white and perfectly straight. "See you guys later!"

I look at Clove, she's smiling after Ethan.

"Nice guy," she says, when she sees me looking at her.

"Yeah," I reply grumpily.

"Oh, cheer up Grumpy Cat," Clove says, poking my bicep. "I like him as a friend, I love you."

"I love you too," I say.

"Good," Clove says, she then gets up on her tip toes and kisses me on the lips.

We're standing there for about a minute when, "HEY! YOU TWO! GET A ROOM!" is shouted across the fountain.

Clove and I separate, I see my friend, Nick, running around the fountain, grinning.

"Hey Kitty," He says, once he's standing in front of us.

"Hey Nicky," I reply.

"What's up?" Nick asks.

"Well, apparently we need to get a room," Clove says. "Clove," she sticks her hand out.

"Nick," he takes her hand, grinning. "She's the good kisser right?" he asks me.

"Um," Damn, he's one of those people who remembers everything from when they're drunk. "Yeah, I guess."

Clove punches me in the arm, hard. "Ow." I complain.

"Shut up," Clove is still smiling though; girls will never cease to confuse me. "Well," Clove says, turning back to Nick, "It's nice meeting you, but Cato and I need to go get a room."

-0_0-

On the way back to the Victors Village, a blonde annoyed face steps in front of us. It's Amara from Advanced Class, the one who was reaped, the one who got their chances of honor and victory taken away by Clove.

The smile washes away from Clove's face, "Hullo Amara." She says.

Amara ignores her and flashes me with a bright white smile. "Hey Cato, it's nice seeing you again, I was afraid you might not come back from the Games."

I raise my eyebrows at her, "So you doubted me?"

"No, no," The girl says hurriedly. "I was just saying that if you didn't come back," she smiles at me again, someone should really put a WARNING SMILE MAY CAUSE PERMANT BLINDNESS sign on her. "I would be devastated."

Clove snorts, "Why? Did your other boy toy get tired of you already?"

Amara turns to face Clove, "He did not get tired of me, I got tired of him. Plus, he wasn't nearly as hot as," she turns back to me, "you." Winking, Amara turns and leaves.

"Well, that was…." I begin.

"Gross." Clove kindly finishes for me, "Now if I remember correctly, we were getting a room?"

"I think you remembered right," I grin at her.

-0_0-

Clove and I lie in my bed, since her family and friends might be at her house; we figured it would be rather…. Awkward, if they happened to wake up, and Rex would probably try to kill me.

"I love being home," Clove says. "The fresh, crisp, cool, autumn mountain air, I missed it so much."

"Yeah," I know what Clove means, "It's nice being back."

"And now we get to train people in the Training Center, if we want to, since we're Victors, I think that would be fun to try out." Clove admits.

"Yeah, scaring the hell out of the children," I say smiling.

I earn a slap on the chest.

"No, I mean, maybe we could try like, training the Advanced class members."

"So train people older than us to use weapons," I clarify.

"Yeah, it would be so much fun, bossing Amara around and telling her everything she's doing wrong."

I have to admit, that does sound pretty fun. "Ethan's in advanced class too, right?" I ask.

"Yeah, why?" Clove asks. When I don't reply she says, "Oh my gods, you are so the jealous type!"

"I am not!" I say defensively. "I'm just a little bit… zelotes."

"You do realize that means jealous in Latin." Clove says.

"Oh, shut up." I tell her.

"Are you going to be jealous of every single guy I talk to?"

"No, I'm not going to be jealous of Rex," I inform her.

Clove laughs. "And the others?"

"Well, yes." I admit.

"Gods, Cat," Clove says. "You're an idiot. I love you. Not Ethan, not 3, not Nick, not anyone else."

"You better not, because I'd beat them all up."

"I'm sure you would." Clove says.

**UGH WRITERS BLOCK AND SNOW STORMS equals annoying. **

**Has anyone seen Endless Love? I can't wait to see it, (looks adorable.)**

**Along with the Sneak Peek on my website, there's the Endless Love trailer if you haven't seen it. (Link in bio)**

**Review! **

**Do any of you watch: The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, or Revenge? **

**If so, who's your favorite character? Mine are Klaus, Elijah, Hayley, Rebekah, Damon, Caroline, Emily, and Nolan.**

**Haha if you watch none of those you have no idea what I'm talking about. **

**~Bookfanic~**


	10. Chapter 10: Advanced Training

**Cato POV**

"CATO!" My mother shrieks, I know it's weird, but this is the first time I've seen her since I've been back. She hugs me so tightly, I'm afraid she might be trying to suffocate me.

"Mom," I complain, Clove is standing by my side, she has a slight smile on her face. "Embarrassing…"

"I haven't seen you for weeks and you're complaining that I'm embarrassing you in front of your 'girlfriend?'" My mother demands.

"First of all, mom, I'm a 16 year old boy, so yeah, I'm embarrassed and second of all don't say 'girlfriend' Clove is my real girlfriend."

"We'll see how long that lasts," my mother mutters.

"MOM!"

"It's true," she has no shame in her voice; I grip Clove's hand in my own, showing her that it wasn't at all true.

Clove puts out her hand, for my mother to shake, but she ignores it. "I told you to kill her first in the Arena, and what do you do? Fall in love."

"Mom!" she has no filter, none at all.

"CATO!" Solis comes running down the stairs in our house. "I missed you!"

I pick Solis up and spin him around in the air, he laughs in delight.

Clove is smiling when I put Solis down.

"Solis, this is Clove, my girlfriend."

Solis looks up at Clove with his big blue eyes (whoa someone is looking up at Clove, that's a first).

Clove smiles at him and kneels down, "Hi Solis, I've heard a lot about you from Cato." Not true, is it?

Solis smiles a toothy grin at Clove, "Nice to meet you, your pretty."

Clove laughs, "Thanks, I can see where Cato got his flirting tips from."

"What-? Hey!" I say, mocking offense.

My mother is not able to finish her rant on Clove, since she wouldn't say bad things about Clove in front of Solis. At least one of my family members seems to like Clove.

-0_0-

"Well that was… fun." Clove says, we are walking back from my old house, where we just had dinner; my mother was evil-eying Clove the whole time.

"Sorry about my mother, she's more protective than Rex." I say apologetically.

Clove laughs, "I didn't even know Rex had a protective bone in his body until yesterday."

"Well, my mother's been protective forever."

"I don't know whether to say luck, or poor you." Clove says.

"How about the second?" I ask.

-0_0-

8 days later

"I can't believe that we're going to be training the Advanced Class members!" Clove laughs; she looks beautiful as always today, wearing a royal blue shirt, jeans and combat boots.

"It'll sure be interesting." I say.

"If you didn't want to do it, why'd you sign up to?" Clove asks.

"Because you would have just done it without me if I didn't do it."

"That's true," Clove admits.

-0_0-

"Ok guys! We have a new pair of trainers today, otherwise known as the Victors of the 74th Hunger Games!" Deus calls.

There's some enthusiastic clapping from a few people but others just stare, probably because Clove and I are younger than most people here.

"Clove, you'll be training, ah, Ethan over there," Deus tells Clove, my heart sinks, "The one with the black hair standing over there," pointing to Ethan, and there goes my chances of there being 2 black-haired Ethans in the class. "And Cato," Deus says, "you're with Amara," leaning in closer to me Deus tells me, "Good luck, you'll need it."

Amara it turns out can use knives pretty well, but that's about it. She misses the person outline by quite a few feet with a spear (worse than Glimmer, wow), with the bow, she can't even get a few feet close to the outline, the ax, just forget about it. Then there's Amara with a sword, her swings are powerful, but she can't block, or dodge, I can't help but wonder how she even got into this class, then I remember, she has a rich daddy. I keep looking over at Clove and Ethan, she's helping him with spears at the moment, and they're both laughing at something. "C'mon," I say to Amara, "We're going to spears."

"But we already-"

"Let's go." I cut her off.

"Alright, whatever." Amara says cheerily enough, this girl is sickening me with her flirty smile, and winks every now and then.

The training center in 2 is a lot like the Capitol's (obviously, since everyone here is training for the Games) so there are different stations around the room, though, there aren't any survival stations, just weapons of all sorts.

I walk up to Ethan and Clove, both of whom are clutching their sides. "Hey," I look directly into Clove's green eyes, filled with laughter.

"Hey," Clove replies, "We were just talking about this one time when I was training Ethan and-"

"Enough of your useless mumblings," Amara says huffily. "We're supposed to be training, remember?"

"Yeah, I do." Clove says, "So let's see it."

"See what?" Amara asks, momentarily confused.

"You throwing a spear," Clove hands Amara the spear she was holding in her left hand.

"Alright," Amara says, taking the spear from Clove.

Amara throws the spear and I cover my eyes, it misses by several feet.

Clove smirks, "Nice job."

"It slipped from my hand." Amara tells Clove confidently.

"Whatever you say," Clove rolls her eyes.

Amara picks up another spear.

20 spears later

Amara finally kind of hit her target, but she hit it in the foot.

Clove has a gigantic smirk on her face, "Let me guess, it slipped?"

"Like you could do better," Amara huffs.

"Actually, shockingly enough, I could." Clove picks up a spear, and backs up 5 feet, closing her eyes, she throws and it hits the target in the heart (A/Nit's like those human target things). That was impressive, but closing her eyes was just showing off.

Amara turns red, "I bet you he couldn't do better," Amara points like a five-year-old since "you know, he hasn't trained in the Capitol like you, you probably took ages to learn how to do that."

Clove again, rolls her eyes. "Wanna try for it, Ethan?'

Ethan smiles blandly at Amara, "I'd love to."

Picking up a spear, he aims, and throws, and I can see the power of his strength in the throw. Ethan misses the heart by a couple inches, but it would still probably be deadly to someone in the Games. I can't help but feel good that Ethan didn't hit straight in the heart, it shows that he's still training, and that I'm better than him. This isn't jealousy is it? No, just protectiveness over my girlfriend…

I snort, "Miss."

Clove shoots me with a glare. "That was good, you just need to straighten your posture and make sure you aim well before you throw."

"Ok," Ethan says, he's gazing at Clove with longing, longing.

"ALRIGHT," I say. "How about we trade Trainees for the rest of the day?" I ask Clove. "You get to try to train Amara and I'll train Ethan."

"But-"

"Nope, it's just for the rest of the day, anyway Amara needs expertise help."

"Excuse me?" Amara, who was previously looking at her finger nails, looks up.

"Yeah, I know great idea." I say. "Why don't you two go over to the knives station, your both fairly good at that." With that, I push the two girls towards knives (the station).

Ethan stands next to me, watching after Clove.

"Alright, why don't we go and train with swords for a while, shall we?" I ask him.

Ethan shrugs, "I guess."

Where I am more 'muscle' as Clove would say, Ethan is leaner and more agile, more like Clove's build. But he is strong, you just can't see it, I saw how much power and strength Ethan used to throw that spear, it's another way he's like Clove, he looks thin and agile, yet he is stronger than many other people you might see with a 'muscle' build, and if he's really like Clove, he'll be extremely smart. That's some high competition. Wait- it's not a competition, I remind myself. Clove is mine, we love each other, and there is no competition with Ethan, because she just likes him as a friend.

Why do I have to be so competitive?

I pick up two swords and toss one to Ethan, who catches it easily. We both walk to an empty matted area, "Ready?" I ask Ethan who is standing opposite me, holding his sword in his left hand. He nods.

I lunge towards him with ferocity, Ethan blocks, when our blades meet, there is a ringing noise and I can feel the strength of my blow reverberating back through me. Ethan presses against my sword, pushing me backwards.

No, swords are my best weapon, there's no way anyone is going to beat me. I kick Ethan backwards in the stomach; he staggers backwards on the mat. Aiming the sword at Ethan's side, I swing; the two swords once again clash. This goes on for about five minutes, then, I finally trip Ethan, so he falls backwards and put the sword point to his throat.

"I win." I say, I suddenly notice that the whole room of is quiet, looking around I see that everyone is staring at the two of us.

I remove the sword point from Ethan's neck, but I don't help him up, he can do that for himself.

"Uh, hi." Ethan says to everyone staring at us.

"Oh shut up already," a very annoyed voice sounding from my left says.

Turning my head, I see that Clove and Amara are at the knife throwing station, Clove is holding a knife so tightly in her right hand, that it is white and trembling.

"You're doing it wrong," Clove says, her voice says that she's been saying the same thing to Amara for a while now. "You have to go like this." Clove lifts up her arm and in one swift motion, she throws, the knife lands where it's expected to- the dummies heart. "Not like this." Clove leans her entire body backwards and throws the knife like it's a spear, where it hits the dummies heart again, though she looked ridiculous doing it. "Flick your wrist, don't use your entire body, just your arm strength, and unless you're running at someone just using your wrist will work fine. Especially since it makes it easier."

"What are you saying I'm not talented?" Amara asks Clove haughtily.

Clove expression plainly says YES. "No, I'm just saying that it's easier to use your wrist instead of leaning backwards and holding the knife like it is a spear."

"So you're saying that you like to do things the easy way instead of the complicated way?" Amara questions. "Wow, I wonder how you ever won the Games, you never even deserved to get into them anyway."

"I didn't deserve to go in the Games?" Clove's face is flushed with anger.

"Never, and you should have been killed in there, my bet was that you were going to be the first to die. You just got lucky well not even lucky, you were screwing the best fighter who fought all your fights for you." Amara says boldly.

"Oh, is that so?" Clove asks Amara through gritted teeth.

"Well, duh, no one as small as you could ever win the Games, I mean look at you, are you sure you're fifteen? Not 12?"

I start towards the two girls, nothing good could come from this fight, especially with Clove's temper, I'm surprised Amara's not dead yet. Ethan follows behind me. Everyone is still watching what's happening.

"What no good comeback?" Amara jeers.

I saw what was coming even before it happened. Clove's fist rose up and punched Amara in the jaw, making a satisfyingly loud crack. "Is that too small and weak for you, Amara?"

Amara is clutching her left cheek, I'm guess that Clove probably broke her jaw, by the looks of it, she did it hard, since her cheek is already starting to swell and bruise. "Bitch," Amara says.

Clove just laughs, without humor. "Takes one to know one."

"Alright, that's enough," I say, finally reaching the two girls.

"Did you not hear what she said?" Clove asks me, her face is red from anger.

"I heard her," I try to sound calm, but truthfully I feel like murdering Amara. "But you need to calm down."

Clove gives me and angry glare, then she shoves past me, and stomps out of the room. Ethan is about to go after her, but I put my hand in front of him, "I got it." I tell him. Not waiting for a reply, I go out of the room to find Clove.

Last time Clove stomped off out of anger, she went down a laundry chute, I smile at the memory, our first actual conversation.

"_How did you find me?"_

"_I went into your room and the carpet was rolled at the corner where you jumped through," I admit. _

"_You went into my room?" She smirks and raises an eyebrow._

"_Um, yeah…" I want to change the subject, "are you alright? Sorry about Chelsey she can be a little…."_

"_Bitchy." Clove fills in. _

_I laugh, "I guess you could say that, but I don't advise doing it in front of her." _

_Clove lets out a little smile, "So, Cato, I have a question for you."_

_I am hesitant but I don't show it, "Shoot," I say._

"_Why did you volunteer?"_

_Should I answer truthfully or just lie? "Um, I did it because nobody should have to kill their own flesh and blood, also I warned everyone else from volunteering so it would be my fault if one of you killed each other," a sliver of the truth. _

_Clove smiles, it's beautiful. "Thank you," she says. _

"_No problem, I've wanted to be in the Hunger Games for a while now anyway." I tell her, I have, just not in the same games as her. _

"_Same," Clove says. "I've seen you use a sword, you're really good, though, probably not as good as me." She smirks_

"_Oh really?" I raise my eyebrows at her. _

"_Really," She says with an arrogant look on her face. _

"_Well, maybe we'll just have to test that theory of yours so I can prove you wrong." I say._

"_Maybe we should, so I can prove I'm right," Clove replies. Every minute I get to know her better I seem to like her more. _

_I roll my eyes, "You can try, knife girl."_

"_Did you just call me knife girl?" she grins._

"_Yes, I believe that I did." I grin back. _

"_You're going down Cat." _

"_Seriously Cat?" I ask her. _

_Clove laughs._

"_Or you could just call me hottest ever-supreme-destroyer," I inform her._

"_But Cat fits better." She fakes whining. _

_I laugh, I haven't laughed like this for a long time. _

"_So Clove, are you planning on sitting here until we get to the Capitol?" _

"_No, just for a while, to think." She says. "I think best when I'm alone."_

"_There's a lock on your door for that." Clove smiles._

"_Well, I guess, but down here seems more… private, if you hadn't noticed no one's been here in ages." _

_I look around; it is rather dusty down here. Clove is sitting atop a blanket, I'm pretty sure that my clothes are being covered with dust at this very moment. _

_I guess Clove notices me looked at my clothes because she says, "you can come sit on the blanket if you want," she scoots over and pats her hand beside her. _

"_Um, thanks." I get up and sit next to her. "Wow," I look around, "I didn't think it was possible for a train to have a laundry chute."_

"_Yeah, neither did I," Clove admits. "I just saw it, and thought why not? I mean, I did grab a blanket first though, no one's used these types of room in centuries."_

"_Yeah, well I just came down here head first," she laughs again, I love Clove's laugh, it's like a bell. _

"_Cato, did you come down here just to say that you're sorry for Chelsey?" Clove asks._

"_Um, I came down to see if you were ok too…" _

"_How gentlemanly of you," I turn to face Clove; I see merriment in her eyes. _

"_Yes, I'm known for my gentlemen tendencies." _

_Clove smiles. "Yeah, and I'm known as the President-in-training of Panem."_

_I can feel how close she is to me, and that if I just leaned forward the slightest I could kiss her. But if I did that, she'd probably slap me in the face, ruining any chances of my friendship with her. _

"_I also came down here to see if I could find an ally, one that I can trust that won't stab me in the back in the Games." _

_Clove sighs, "The Games, I've been waiting for my chances my entire life, now that I'm actually going to be in them, I'm unsure if I made the right choice."_

"_Well," I check my watch. "5:30 right now and they are replaying the reapings every hour, so if we go upstairs and clean up, we can watch the reaping at 6." _

"_Ok, Cat, be ready then." Clove stands up. "Meet me in my room at, 5:50?"_

"_Sure, but why not my room?" I ask. _

_Clove smirks, "because you seem to know where my room is better than I know where yours is."_

_I feel heat rising to my face, what the heck?! Am I blushing? _

"_By the way," Clove adds, "since you're the last one sitting, you get to take the blanket." With that she bolts from the room, opening a door that I didn't even notice, leaving me alone with a dirty dusty blanket._

Well, there's not a laundry chute in the Training Center, so where would Clove go? She did say that she liked the park, but that would be too public for her, too many people there at this time of day. I remember when we spent that night talking, she told me that she enjoyed hiking, but she couldn't already be hiking up a mountain, where is she?

Clove likes high places, she always likes being on top of training scores, knowing what's going on, and she likes climbing trees. Stepping into the elevator, I look at the buttons, there's one for the roof, I press it.

When the elevator dings open on the roof, the first thing I notice is how windy it is. Even though the Training Center is only 4 stories tall, it looks like it's at least 9 stories tall, because each floor has an extra-large area in it, for training.

I had a lucky guess; Clove is sitting on the ledge of the roof, looking down over everything.

"You know," I call over the wind. "Jumping would be a very bad idea."

Clove turns her head at me, her expression says she's angry, but her eyes say she was waiting for me to come up here.

"I'm not going to jump," Clove rolls her eyes. "I'm just looking over 2, we're in the tallest building, so you can see pretty much everything. It's beautiful."

I walk over to where Clove is perched and try to ignore the wind that's trying to push me off the roof, it's surprising that Clove, considering how light she is, hasn't been blow over.

I look over; I can see a small lake glittering at the base of a mountain miles away, that's where I learned to swim. The lake is so far away that it looks like a hand-held glass mirror.

"Right?"

"Uh what?" I ask.

"I just stated plainly that Amara is a crazy prideful bitch."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry I zoned out there for a moment."

"You seem to do that a lot, don't you?" Clove says thoughtfully.

"Yeah, sorry." I tell her. "I don't have the biggest attention span."

"I don't care, as long as you're with me," Clove smiles at me. "I could just rip out that blondes eyes and feed them to the mountain wolves."

"Amara isn't the most pleasurable person is she?"

"Nope, but I noticed she seemed to take a liking to you," Clove raises an eyebrow at me.

"Well who wouldn't, I got abs harder than rocks, tested by you."

Clove laughs, "That's true," she pokes me in the stomach.

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	11. Chapter 11: Familia

**Sorry I'm posting so late. I'm having a very busy day. **

**So excited I'm going to see Endless Love tonight! **

**I love Alex Pettyfer he is so freaking hot! Mmmm, he'd make the perfect Jace. **

**Batchgirl67: No, I didn't mean to make a reference to The Vampire Diaries. I have a notepad with a bunch of names and I pick a random one off it lol. Solis and Cato time and Solis and Clove time. that might be fun to write about. Maybe I'll add that in. I did have a part where Solis went to stay with Cato (it was in this chapter) but I deleted it since I didn't really have enough ideas to keep that going. **

**Cato's POV**

I go to visit Solis and my mother after training.

_Knock. Knock. _

My mother opens the door.

"Cato," she says, looking around.

"Don't worry," I sigh, "Clove's not around."

"Cato," my mother smiles and gives me a hug.

"You don't have to be so mean to her all the time, you know, she's actually a really nice girl," I inform my mom.

"Who almost got you killed a number of times."

"Actually that was the part about me going into the Hunger Games it's where you have to fight to the death, if you didn't know."

My mother sniffs, "I liked the girl from 1, the blonde one."

I roll my eyes, "Of course you did, anyway I came here to see Solis and visit with you, not fight with you over my choice in girls."

"Alright, but we're talking about this subject sooner or later, you can't avoid this subject forever." My mother tells me warningly, I'm sure I can't, but I can sure try. "Solis! Cato's here!"

A blonde flash comes down the stairs, then a small body tackles me. "CATO!"

"Hey, buddy," I say, picking up Solis.

"Where's Clove?" Solis asks me, looking around.

I chuckle, "She's my girl, Solis, not yours."

Solis pouts. "I like her, she's nice."

"All my girlfriends are nice," I say.

"Uh-huh," Solis grins at me crookedly.

"What are you? 16?" I ask him, this is my three-year-old brother here!

"Nope, 3 and a half," Solis says.

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Cato?" My mother asks me.

"Sure, I guess." I say.

-o_o-

"We never see you any more, Cato." My mother says, as she serves dinner, which is chicken breast and mashed potatoes.

"Yeahhh," Solis agrees.

"Sorry, I guess I've been busy." I say.

"With Clove." My mother finishes.

I don't answer.

"Did you forget that we're your family and Clove is your girlfriend?" my mom asks. "Family first."

"Clove might be my family," I say defensively, "someday."

"What?" My mother looks at me, astonished.

"I said, Clove might be my family someday."

"You are not going to marry that girl," My mom says.

"Well not now, but maybe someday." I tell her.

"Yeah, I like Clove, mommy."Solis tells my mom.

"How's dad?" I ask.

"He's been busy with work," my mom replies stiffly.

"As in he doesn't care to see me," I fill in.

My mom sends me a warning look, then she jerks her head towards Solis, who's making a mashed-potato snow-man. My mom's face clearly says, later.

-o_o-

I'm putting Solis to bed, just like I used to do every night. Solis's room is yellow with a simple, yet detailed carved bed sitting in the middle of it.

"Can you tell me a story, Cato?" Solis asks me.

"Ugh, no." I say.

"Please?" Solis gives me the puppy eyes, god damn it, I hate the puppy eyes.

"Fine."

"Yay!" Solis claps his hands together, with a look of delight on his face. If one things for sure about my little brother, it's that he sure knows how to get what he wants.

"So once there was this boy, who was in love with a girl and they got married and then had a happy life, the end."

"Cato!" Solis complains.

"What do you want to hear?" I ask.

"Tell me about Clove," Solis says happily. "About how you two met."

"Well, the first real time we met, we were in the train going to the Capitol….."

-0_0-

I turn the light off to Solis's room and quietly close the door. When I look up, my mother is standing in front of me.

"Where is father, actually?" I ask her.

"He's spending the night out, like he does pretty much every night these days." My mom tells me.

"He's not…" I trail off, but my mother gets the idea.

"Cheating on me? What do you think?" she replies.

"That dick-head, I could just-"

"Cato!" my mother scolds, "Solis is sleeping right on the other side of this door!"

"Mom! If dad's cheating on you, don't you think that you should stand up for yourself? Just a little bit?" I ask.

"No, I don't want to ruin Solis's childhood with his parents splitting up." She says, sighing.

"Solis's childhood will be ruined if you and dad fight all the time, also if your miserable the whole time, what kind of good childhood is that anyway?" I point out to her, my mother just sighs again.

"Let's just leave that subject alone for now, shall we?" my mom looks hopeful.

"No, let's not!" I say angrily. "He's a bad role model for Solis, he shouldn't even be around kids, he might go into one of his drunken rages and kill Solis or something!"

"Cato," my mother looks at me pleadingly. "Don't say that."

"Say what? The truth?" I'm really angry now. "We both have known that dad has been unstable for a while now, mom."

She says nothing.

"I know that you're hoping that he'll change, but he won't, we've both been hoping for the same thing for years."

"That's exactly why you still wear his gold necklace," my mother says angrily, "because you've given up on him."

I scowl at her, and take of the necklace, slapping it on the table next to me. "He won't change, we were both hoping he would, but he won't."

My mom's eyes start to water, "Stop." She says.

"You know he'll never change! Slapping you and me around is one thing mom, but what if he hurts Solis? What if he accidently kills him? Solis is so young, he needs a chance to live, to be happy, you should be happy too mom."

A single tear falls from my mother's face, "He didn't used to be like this, he used to be, sweet, loving…. Compassionate."

"I know I remember." I say. "But he's not anymore, you need to let go, move on, kick him out."

"If I do that, he might take Solis with him." My mother points out.

"He won't, I'll stand up for you in court if I have too."

"Alright." My mother says finally after an awkward silence.

"Good, it's for the best mom; you need to get rid of dad."

My mom wipes another tear from her face, "I… need some time to be alone." She tells me.

"I'll see you soon." I tell her.

**I don't like Cato's dad much, do you? **

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	12. Chapter 12: Amicitia

**Cato's POV**

_Next evening_

We're eating at Clove's old house tonight for dinner. Rose is cooking, and according to Clove's raves, Rose is amazing at cooking. There's a knock on my door, I open it and see Clove, standing in the doorway, wearing blue turquoise silk shirt with a leather belt around her waist, along with leggings and combat boots. Clove told me to wear something nice, or Rex might gut me alive, she seems surprised that Rex is now an over-protective older brother. I'm not that surprised, I mean he did just have to watch his little sister go into a fight-to-the-death Game, thank the gods that's not happening again.

"You look amazing," I tell her.

"Well duh," Clove smiles. "You do too."

"Of course I do," I smile. "You ready to go?"

Clove nods, I put out my arm for her. "It's not prom you know." Clove points out.

I lower my arm, "But, hey, I never said to put your arm down." She smiles, I am completely in love with this girl.

-0_0-

Rose made sushi for dinner, which is raw fish with rice and seaweed wrapped around it, it's actually really good. It's also very awkward, since the 5 of us are all just sitting around the table, eating in silence.

"So, Cato," Clove's mother says, breaking through the silence. "How's your family these days?"

"Um, they're good," I say awkwardly.

"Cato, how's your house in the Village? Are you enjoying staying in it? Or do you get kinda of lonely since you're by yourself?" Rex asks, the tone of his voice says, you'd better be by yourself or I will personally rip out your guts and feed them to the crows.

"I kind of miss living with my family, so yeah it's pretty lonely." Not.

Rex nods in approval.

"Rex," Clove says sweetly. "Do me and favor and shut up."

-0_0-

_Next day walking to the Training Center_

"Are you sure you want to go back?" I ask Clove, I already know the answer; Clove has that determined look on her face.

"I have to show Glimmer- excuse me, Amara, that she has no effect on me." What Clove says is true, Amara is A LOT like Glimmer. "I hope someone drops a tracker jacker nest on her too." Clove grumbles, obviously Amara does have effect on Clove.

The big glass doors to the Center slide open, Clove and I walk to the elevator, stepping in it, I lean forward to press the 4 button.

Clove crosses her arms.

"What did I do this time?" I ask.

"I wanted to push the button," Clove complains.

"What are you? Five?" I ask her incredulously.

Clove's grumpy face breaks into a grin, "And a half."

-o_o-

I'm with Amara again today.

"So then, I was like, this was on clearance last week, I know this isn't one of a kind…" All Amara talks about is shopping, nails, and other people's fashion, it bores the hell out of me, then looking over at Ethan and Clove, and they're smiling and laughing all the time, why couldn't I have gotten Nick or even Rex to train? I inwardly groan.

-0_0-

"Alright guys! Training for today is over!" Deus shouts so everyone can hear him. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Every starts to leave, I find Clove in the crowd and walk over to her. "Ugh, kill me now." I groan.

Clove smirks, "Amara sickening you?"

"With talk of shopping," I inform her.

"Now you know what my life is like with Joce 24/7." Clove tells me.

"What? I heard my name," Jocelyn and Shawna walk over to us.

"Yeah, I was just telling Cat about your shopping problems." Clove tells her two best friends.

"Speaking of which we need to hang out," Jocelyn says. "We don't have to go shopping, let's go get dinner together."

"Well Cato and I-"

"C'mon Clove you never hang out with us anymore," Jocelyn wines, it's kind of funny seeing a 17 year-old wine to a 15-year-old. "Shawna help me out here."

Shawna looks apologetically to me and Clove and says, "It's true, you're always spending all your time with Cato and none with us these days, it's like you've replaced us. Remember? Friends before boyfriends."

Clove looks at me for permission, we had plans for dinner tonight, but her friends need her, I can understand that. "It's fine," I tell Clove, "We can have move our first date to another time."

"Are you sure?" Clove asks me.

"Yeah, I'm sure, I'll see you later, and if not, tomorrow."

"See you then."

"Yay!" Jocelyn squeals, grabbing Clove's arm and pulling her to the elevator with her and Shawna, Clove looks back and smiles at me, mouthing thank you.

**Clove's POV**

Shawna, Joce, and I sit in our favorite restaurant, Paradisus. They serve all different types of food, but today, I just get a hamburger, a large serving of fries, and a large vanilla cookies 'n' cream shake. Shawna got a serving of orange chicken and a coke, and Joce got pesto pasta, a salad, a soup bowl, and a large caramel shake. Once our food is served, I look at Shawna and Joce, who sit across from me in the booth. We are sitting in 'our' booth; it's near the back, where we aren't very noticeable so not many people will lean into our conversations.

"So," Joce says, "how's Cato?"

"He's good?" I say it as a question.

"Give us some details for god's sake!" Shawna exclaims. "Like you didn't even know hi m before the Games, then you two decide to almost strip in-front of the cameras, then you do strip in-front of the cameras, and then you two decide to kill yourselves if you can't be together, we're your best friends, tell us what happened!"

"Where do I start?" I ask my two friends, smiling weakly.

"How about when you and Cato first met." Shawna advises.

"Yeah," Joce agrees, "That sounds good."

"Ok…." This is weird, this is defiantly weird. "Well, you see, our mentors were Chelsey and Brutus-"

"What? I thought Enobaria was your mentor." Shawna says confused.

"Shut it," Joce says. "She's telling a story."

"So Chelsey and I didn't exactly get along, and the first time we met I kind of stuck a butter knife through her hand."

Both Shawna and Joce groan, they know my temper well enough.

"Anyway, afterwards, I ran off to my room, where I discovered a laundry chute entrance, like the type they used back in the 21st century."

"Wait," Shawna interrupts, "On the train?"

I nod. "So I grabbed a blanket and slid down the chute, I was down there for about 5 minutes, when something flew out from the chute and landed on top of me, that was Cato, it turns out he was looking for me because he was worried about me. I didn't know at the time, but Cato had a big crush on me, and that's why he volunteered to take Rex's place, so I didn't have to kill my own brother, and to make sure I was safe."

"Aw that's so sweet." Both Joce and Shawna say together.

"So we had a conversation, and I immediately trusted him."

"Letting your guard down…" Shawna says.

I ignore Shawna and continue, "So anyway we made an arrangement to go to my room and watch the reapings together." I smile at the memory.

**Next few chapters are going to be memory lane, (some scenes from Clove's POV and such) **

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	13. Chapter 13: Memory Lane pt 1

**SO Sorry for posting so late. It is exactly 12:44 right now while I'm typing this. I started putting together a school project (that I've been working on for a couple weeks now) around 7:30 and I just finished it a bit ago. So Sorry for the late/early update. **

**Clove's POV**

"So we had a conversation, and I immediately trusted him.

"Letting your guard down…" Shawna says.

I ignore Shawna and continue, "So anyway we made an arrangement to go to my room and watch the reapings together." I smile at the memory.

_I chose to wear a deep green shirt, jeans and some leather combat boots. Cato was wearing a black shirt, jeans, and boats. _

_We go and sit down on my bed. "So, what's the food for?" I want to know. _

"_I thought we might get hungry," he says. "I love munching on unhealthy things while watching TV."_

"_I like your way of thinking, Cat." I grin and pick a cannoli off the plate, stuffing half of it in my mouth at once. _

"_It is 5:58 turn the projector on." Cato tells me. _

_I pick up a piece of glass from the bedside table and runs my hand along is smooth flawless surface. The TV/projector flicks on and the lights go out Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith appear on the screen they are talking about something useless. Cato sits next to me, while I stuff myself with a vanilla cream puff. "And now," Caesar says, "Here are this year's reaping for the 74th annual Hunger Games."_

_The screen/projector comes on starting with District 1. Both from 1 are volunteers, no surprise there, the female tribute is tall with green eyes and blonde hair, her name is Glimmer, ugh 1 has the stupidest names. The male from 1 is lanky, he has short light brown hair and green eyes, and named Marvel (exactly what I said about the names.) Then it shows 2, me volunteering, and then Cato, it cuts out the little part of everyone waiting before Cato volunteered. 3, the girl looks boring and the boy looks frightened yet confident. Then there is District 4, that's the 3rd 'career' district, they have the least amount of Victors from all the careers, though some years ago Finnick Odair did win his games, no problem and put on a great show for the Capito (he is also very hot). 5 I notice the girl with red hair has a sly look to her, I'd better watch out for her in the Arena, 6, 7, 8 ugh hate them, 9, and 10 pass by quickly in my eyes, nothing to see there. But in 11, there is a large bulky male tribute and a young small female tribute who is too young, too young to be fighting to the death, the male looks like a promising fight though. Then there's 12, the female there volunteered people in the poorer Districts almost never volunteer so this will be interesting. Caesar and Claudius appear back on the projector/screen, "this year's games look quite promising, do they not, Claudius?" _

"_Yes, yes, I quite agree." Claudius replies. "It's not every day that someone volunteers from a poorer district. This might make this year's games the best yet." _

"_Anyway," Caesar says, "We'll see you in the next hour, or at the tribute parade." He winks and the screen starts to play useless stuff. I grab the glass and move my fingers along it like I'm dialing a phone number, the lights pop back on and the screen/projector clicks off. Cato looks down at the plate of food that sits between us. It's half empty._

_Cato raises his eyebrows at his. "What? I was hungry and I like sugar." I say defensively. _

"_Yes, and you ate half of a gigantic plate of pastries in about a 20 minute show." _

"_Are you suggesting that I'm fat?" I ask in mock offense, I like Cato more and more by the minute._

"_No, I'm just saying you're a fast eater and probably a sugar addict."_

"_You got that right," I try to take another pastry from the dish, but Cato grabs the plate away before I can get one. "Cat," I complain, "Give them back. No rhyme intended."_

"_I think you've had enough sugar," he says, standing up. I try to make a grab for the plate; But Cato lifts it above my head. _

"_Well, now you're just being insulting," I sat while on tip toes trying to get the dish. _

"_Nah-ah," Cato lifts the plate higher. _

_I jump up on the bed and try to reach the plate from there, but he just moves the plate away from the bed. _

"_Shorty."_

_I grin insanely at him then I jump off the bed onto him, we both fall to eh floor, causing Cato to spill over the rest of the pastries. _

"_Ah, c'mon, Cat I thought you had a better grip than that." _

"_Yeah, well I guess you're getting your revenge from me landing on top of you." _

_I shrug, "I've been in worse situations." Gods does that sound like I'm flirting with him? I just want to be friends, right? _

_At that moment Chelsey and Brutus come into the room. They stare at us from our place on the floor.I scramble off Cato. "Well, well, what's going on in here?" Brutus grins. _

"_The annoying one is trying to screw Cato," Chelsey says. I notice that Chelsey's hand is bandaged, I smirk knowing I did that to her._

"_I see you're back to your great to be around self again," I smile blandly at Chelsey. _

_Chelsey ignores me and stares up at the ceiling. _

"_Uh, Chelsey had decided that since this year's female tribute is ah," Brutus pulls out a sheet of paper from his back pocket. "You know what? I'm not going to finish this list. Chelsey is quitting from mentoring this year, Enobaria will be filling in for her, and we'll be meeting her when we arrive at the Capitol."_

"_Ok," I say buoyantly. _

"_Oh, one thing before I leave," Chelsey says. "Cato, it'd be best to stay away from the little…" Well, let's just say, she was being rude while I am being a perfectly agreeable lady._

"_Awe,"I put my hand to my chest like Chelsey had just complimented me. "That's so sweat, I'm touched." _

_Chelsey stamps her foot and stomps out of the room. Brutus smiles weakly, "I think she was trying to get you mad again," Brutus tells me._

_I smirk, "I know, so I thought she'd be most annoyed if I let it in one ear and out the other."_

"_Well it worked," Brutus chuckled. "I should a- go talk to her. And, you may want to get a servant to clean this up." He waves his hand at the pasties on the floor then leaves the room. _

_Cato decides to call a servant in to clean up the pastries, I instruct the girl to get me and Cato some hot chocolate and cookies, and not to come back until she has both, the girl looks like she might faint from terror. After the girl leaves, Cato turns to me and says, "You really have a way of getting what you want don't you, Clove?" _

"_Yep, Cat, it's one thing you should learn about me." I stretch out on the bed, with my head on the pillows and my arms behind my head on either side. _

_Cato jumps onto the bed and sits next to me. "So about the games," He says in a suspiciously casual voice ."Allies till the end?"_

_I hesitate can I trust him? My brain says no, but my gut feeling says yes, "Allies to the end. I'm only saying this because I trust you, Cat. Please don't betray it." Wow I just said please. _

"_Never," he tells me. _

_I smile up at Cato, literally up, since he's sitting next to me, and is a lot taller than me._

"_Look what I found in here," I take out the glass remote and bring up the files I found onto the projector screen. "They have every single one of the Hunger Games on here." _

"_So, how should we play it?" he asks me. "1-73 or 73 down to 1?" _

"_I'm thinking, 1 to 73." Best start from the beginning. _

"_Sure," the servant girl comes into the room with a humongous silver steaming pitcher and a large plate of cookies. _

"_Is this good enough for you, Miss?" the servant asks me hesitantly._

"_Yes, yes, this is great!" I beam at the confused looking girl. "Thank you." _

_The servant sets the plate, pitcher and two mugs down on the bedside table next to me and leaves the room. _

"_Wow, Clove, sugar really gives you mood swings."_

"_Hmm?" I pour the hot chocolate into two separate mugs. "Here," I hand Cato a mug, he takes a sip of the delicious rich chocolate drink, a look of pleasure comes onto his face._

"_I said, sugar really gives you mood swings." _

"_What do you mean by that?" I raise my eyebrows mockingly at Cato._

"_I mean, one minute you're all harsh to the servant and the next you're beaming at her because she brings you a plate of cookies." _

"_Whatever Cat, is it wrong to enjoy good food while I still can?" _

"_I guess not, anyway all I was saying is that you get mood swings around sugar. I'm going to hate to see you in the Arena with no sugar."_

"_That's my motivation to get out," I joke, "getting sugar again."_

_We both laugh; it feels good to laugh again._

_I turn off the lights and play the first ever Hunger Games._

(A/N did you like it in Clove's POV)

So basically I explained the main parts of that memory to Joce and Shawna.

"AW! That's so cute!" Joce exclaims.

"You jumped on top of him the first day you knew him?" Shawna asks me skeptically.

"I didn't really mean to jump on him," I say, heat rushing to my face, "I just accidentally knocked him over and I happened to land on top of him."

"Just get back to the story," Joce says impatiently.

"So we watched the Games, and I fell asleep against Cato's chest."

"YOU WHAT?!" Joce almost screams.

Shawna has her ears covered, "you heard her, shut up." I don't blame her, Joce has a loud voice, especially when you're sitting right next to her.

"So anyway, the next morning, we arrived at the Capitol, and Cato didn't want to be separated from me when we going to be prepped for the parade."

"Aww," my two friends say in hardly-ever union.

"But I calmed him down enough to go. Then the next time we saw each other, it was before the Tribute Parade."

"You were wearing Gladiator uniforms," Jocelyn nods. "They weren't that bad." That's actually a huge compliment coming from Joce.

"I remember he said that he was glad to have me on his team." I smile. "And when I almost fell from the chariot, Cato caught me."

This makes Joce say 'aw' again.

"Then we had dinner, and after that, I went to my room and practiced martial arts, by myself. And I accidently flipped into Cato and landed on top of him."

_To be continued…. _

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	14. Chapter 14: Memory Lane pt 2

**Clove's POV**

"Then we had dinner, and after that, I went to my room and practiced martial arts, by myself. And I accidently flipped into Cato and landed on top of him."

"_Is this becoming a tradition?" he asks me._

"_Not my fault for the two times I was on top of you," I tell him._

"_And it was my fault when I fell on top of you from the laundry chute?" _

"_Yes."_

"_How?"_

"_You could have done like a flip over me or something." I say sitting up._

"_Yes, I can so do a flip from sliding down a chute that barely fits me at like 20 miles per hour." Cato says sarcastically._

"_You never know until you try," I tell him playfully. _

"_Where am I going to find another old laundry chute?" He asks. _

"_I don't know, you figure it out," Cato is offering me his hand to help me stand up, I take it. _

"_So, who are you training with?"_

"_Um, Cheyenne, she's my Capitol training partner." _

"_Oh?" Cato is smiling._

"_Yeah, she gets really nervous around other people besides me so she hides whenever other people come into the room." Wow I sound stupid, how does Cato make me able to be an idiot?_

"_Well, maybe you should try training with a less self-conscious training partner."_

"_Like who?" I ask him. _

"_Well, me obviously," Cato replies._

_I look at him; I would totally make a fool of myself, Cato is bigger than me, and he's been trained the same as me. I wouldn't make It 5 seconds against him; hand-to-hand combat is not my thing._

"_Um…"_

"_Scared to play without your knives?" Cato taunts me; he knows this will make me have to fight him._

"_Ugh, fine, but I'm warning you, I suck." I grumble._

"_Ok then, whoever can keep the other one down for 5 seconds, starting positions." Cato and I stand across from each other. _

"_On, 3," I say, "1…2…3!" _

_I aim a kick towards Cato's ribs; he blocks and grabs my foot, causing me to get off balance. What can I do? What can I do? I ask myself. I horrible idea pops into my head, I try it. I front-flip over Cato, making him let go of my foot. Ok, maybe it wasn't a horrible idea. Cato turns swiftly around, but I'm ready for him, I grab his elbow, and somehow manage to jumbo-flip him over my head. I guess it was just momentum. Cato slams into the ground on his back, his breath is knocked out of him. I sit on his chest and count to 5. _

"_I win!" I say happily._

_Cato groans, "I thought you said you suck at this."_

"_When I play against Jocey or Rex I am. Guess you're just bad." I mock him. _

_Brutus, Enobaria, and Ellen come bursting in to my room. "What in the heavens is going on in here?" Ellen exclaims. _

"_We were practicing for the games," Cato says, I'm still perched on top of his hard muscled chest, I'm fairly sure a rock is softer than his chest._

_Ellen frowns, "I thought I clearly told you, one of the rules is no fighting."_

"_But we weren't fighting." I say. "We were training."_

"_It's the same thing." Ellen huffs, she's probably jealous that I'm sitting on Cato's chest instead of her, even though she does look like she's 10 years older than him. _

"_No, it's not. Fighting is where you try and kill each other; we're training, which is practice for fighting." I explain simply._

_Ellen frowns at me and opens her mouth to say something, but Enobaria beets her to it. "It's true," she tells Ellen. "Training isn't the same thing as fighting in 2, training is practice for fighting." _

_Ellen glares at me then stomps out of the room. "Well, that was…interesting." Cato says. _

"_Yup," I say._

"_You two…." Brutus looks like he is about to laugh. _

"_What?" I demand. _

"_Nothing, it's nothing." He's still smiling. _

"_It's obviously not nothing." Cato says._

"_Ok, well we came in here to make sure you two weren't killing each other, and since you aren't, bye!" Brutus says and bolts out of the room before we can ask him more questions. _

"_Anyway," Enobaria says, she's slightly smiling too. "Be up for breakfast at 7." She leaves. _

"_Um, Clove?" _

""_Yes?"_

"_Are you ever going to get off me?" Cato asks. _

"_Oh, right." I say, scrambling to get off him. "God Cato, I've sat on rocks softer than your stomach." _

_He grins, "Is that a compliment or insult?"_

"_Think of it as both." I say. _

"_So, what do you want to do now? Ellen would probably throw a fit if we trained again." _

"_All the more reason to do it then," I say._

_Cato smiles, "You have a knack for annoying people you don't like, don't you?"_

"_Yep, let's train." _

_Cato and I train until 10, when Ellen comes into my bed room and insists that we stop, or we'll keep the people from District 1 awake, as if. So we go and shower, then Cato comes back into my room and we continue watching past Hunger Games. I find it comfortable snuggling up against him. I know, I've known him for less than 70 hours but as I said before I feel a connection to Cato, I can't really identify what yet, but snuggling next to him feels…. Right. Cato puts his arm around me as we watch the 25th Hunger Games which is the first Quarter Quell. This also feels like it should be there, why am I feeling like this? _

"Ah that's so cute, how you two trained together; it must have been so much fun." Jocelyn says. "I have got to try hand-to-hand combat with Cato sometime, if you can beat him," there's a twinkle of merriment in her eyes. "I'd love to see how he goes against me."

"So, anyway, the next day was our first day of training. For training we had a plan to intimidate the other tributes, and we also were going to go from survival station to weapons, so we knew what we were doing in the Arena. In the training room, I met Sierra and Marino from 4, Sasha the boy from 3, and Glimmer and Marvel from 1."

"Ugh Glimmer she was so annoying during the Games." Shawna says.

"Yeah, what right does little-miss-perfect have to challenge you?" Joce adds.

I smile, "She and Amara are alike."

"They are!" Joce says, realization dawning on her face.

"I hope the same fate happens to Amara as what happened to Glimmer," Shawna adds.

"Don't we all." I say, wishful thinking is nice.

Both Shawna and Joce both turn back to me, waiting to hear about the rest of the Games.

"So when I met Sasha, he mentioned he could rewire things that gave me an idea, could he rewire the landmines? So I was the one who got him into the Alliance. The others were hesitant about it, but Cato was on my side, so I won them over. That evening after training, Cato kissedme, at first I was surprised, but I liked it at the same time. " Shawna opens her mouth to interrupt, but I put my hand up and she closes it. "I avoided him because I didn't know what to say, but he came and knocked on the door to my room after dinner and when I opened it…"

_To be continued…_

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	15. Chapter 15: Memory Lane pt 3

**Ok so I know some of you guys don't like all the flashbacks so this is the last flashback chapter. Since it has the next 3 chapters in it, I'm sorry but I won't be posting Saturday. **

**Clove's POV**

_"Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. Can we just forget it ever happened?" Cato's blue eyes plead with me._

_"No," I say, "we can't." I see Cato's face go from pleadingly hopeful to sad. _

_I grab the front of Cato's shirt and pull him down into a kiss; he makes a surprised noise, but kisses me back none the less. _

_"Wait, what?" Blondes, I roll my eyes. _

_"Cato, you are such an idiot," I inform him. "I don't want to forget what happened earlier. I like you, Cat, I really like you."_

_"Uh, I like you too." _

_ "Well that's good; otherwise it would be awkward when I did this." I pull him into another kiss._

_We are still standing in the doorway to my room. I don't even hear Ellen coming up behind us until she says, "Excuse me." Ugh, I reluctantly stop kissing Cato and look irritably at Ellen. I step forward so that I am beside Cato._

_"Yes?" I ask. _

_"Well I am here because-" _

_"Yeah, well we don't really care," I say, Ellen gapes at me, I bet no one has ever talked to Ellen like that before, I hold back a laugh. Ellen's face is priceless. "As you can tell we were in the middle of something important that you interrupted,"I continue onward. "So goodbye!" Taking Cato's wrist I pull him into my room and slam the door in a shocked Ellen's face._

_As soon as the door closes pull Cato into another kiss. We slowly walk over to her bed and sit on the side of it. We are also intensely making out. "I don't understand." Cato says after a while. _

_"What don't you understand?" _

_"Well, I thought you were going to end our friendship and now we are making out and offending Capitol citizens. " I laugh,"So are we like… I don't know, dating now?"_

_"Yeah, I guess we are," let out another little laugh. (_A/N yay another Clove's POV on a different scene)

"So anyway, for the private training sessions I decided to show off a little bit. So I jumped off a platform and stuck 3 lit up dummies in the hearts with knives."

"Show off," Shawna mutters.

I ignore her and continue on. "Then, for training scores, both Cato and I got 10's. Cato didn't like Thresh because he declined our offer to join the Alliance, and I did like Rue, but that girl from 5 I watched her during training and she looked clever, she was on the top of my kill list for the Games."

Shawna nods in approval.

"Then there was Katniss, she got an 11, a score higher than both Cato and I, Cato did _not _like that."

"I can imagine so," Joce says, I shoot her a glare.

"I comforted him by saying we'd get her in the Games."

_"No, I get it, she beat us in the parade and now she's beat us in ranking, we'll get her in the Games. We can, we'll make it so she regrets ever living," I squeeze Cato's hand, and raise my eyebrows at him, "ok?"_

_"We'll get her?" he sounds so young when he says that._

_I smile at him, "We'll get her."_

"So then we had to train for the interviews, and let me tell you that was a _pain_."

"What do you mean?" Joce asks me curiously, I grimace at the memory.

_"Your interviews are tomorrow," Brutus says. "So we need to find some type of personality for you two." He's pointing at Cato and I. _

_"Why not just be ourselves?" Cato asks, behind as usual._

_Brutus, and Enobaria chuckle, and I give a slight smile, trying not to make Cato feel too stupid._

_"What?" Cato asks confused. _

_"Well, you need to give your sponsors some reason to give you money, especially since 12 is showing you two up." Enobaria says, ouch, that's still a sore spot for Cato. _

_I can feel Cato tense, I pat him on the arm. Making sure he doesn't break anything or kill anyone is probably a good idea. _

_"Yeah, we noticed, no need to point it out." I say defensively for Cato's sake._

_ "Ok, ok, so personality," Brutus says. "Cato, with your stature and build you could easily go for cocky."_

_"Or he could just as easily go for an ego-tastic maniac," I add helpfully. "He fooled me for years." _

_"Wow," Cato says sarcastically, "Thank you Clove that was very helpful."_

_I look up into Cato's brilliant blue eyes and smile like I smile at people when I went something; it's like puppy dog eyes but more effective. Right now I'm just doing it for fun though, "I know." _

_"Alright, alright, now is not the time to be flirting." Enobaria interrupts our 'flirting'," So Cato try for cocky. Brutus will question you and you try to answer with all the confidence that you will win these games, ok?"_

_"Sure," Cato shrugs._

_"So Cato, how are you feeling about the games?" Brutus asks he's filling in for Caesar. _

_"I'm feeling great about them," Cato says in an I-do-this-everyday voice. "There's no one who can stop me from winning this year." I laugh quietly, Cato frowns at me._

_"And how do you feel about your competitors?" _

_"Easy," he says, yeah right, "this year is going to be the quickest Games yet." _

_"Why do you say that?"_

_"Because I'm going to win within a matter of days," Cato says confidently. "With my skill, no one will stand in my way." _

_"Yeah right," I mutter. _

_"Not helping Clove." _

_"And what," Brutus says, "is your skill?" _

_"What isn't?" Cato laughs. "I can wield a sword, throw a spear, throw knives better than anyone I know," I snicker, "I can use any weapon that I can get my hands on, I can even kill someone without a weapon." _

_"Good, good, that angle will work perfectly for you," Enobaria says. "Just answer Caesars questions in the same way. Now you," she turns to Clove. "You're smaller than Cato."_

_I laugh, "That's an understatement." _

_Enobaria ignores my comment, "and going for the same angle as Cato probably won't work for you, but you did get the same score as him."_

_"And?" I ask in an amused tone._

_"So what angle should we show you from? Sly? Smart? Cunning? Quiet? Comedic? Witty? Aloof? Charming? Cute? Girly?" _

_"Hold up, there's no way I'm doing cute or girly." I interrupt; Joce and Shawna would never let me forget about it. _

_It's Cato's turn to laugh, "Why not? It fits your personality perfectly." _

_I punch Cat in the arm._

_ "How about, confident and likeable?" I ask. _

_"Sure, we can try that." Enobaria says shrugging. "So Clove, how do you like it in the Capitol so far?"_

_"Oh, I simply love it here." I say, "Everyone here is so kind and generous. Not to mention the beautiful clothing here, I simply adore it, when I win this year, I'll be sure to check out the latest fashion trends here and buy like everything." Haha, yeah right, I'd burn it all if I did._

_"That's sweet; do you feel like you are prepared for the Games?" _

_"Oh, certainly, the trainers here have helped me out a lot, I'm very grateful for that."_

_"Alright, this isn't likeable this is humble, we do not want you to be humble." Brutus cuts in. _

_"Maybe try being confident and smart?" Enobaria says. _

_"Sure," I shrug. _

_ "So Clove, how are you feeling about this year's games?" Brutus asks. _

_"I'm feeling like there's no plausible way I wouldn't win, I mean look at the other tributes do any of them look like competition?" _

_"Who do you think will be your biggest competition?" _

_ "That's a hard one, I believe it would be Cato, my district partner, I mean, have you seen him?" _

_I can feel Cato smiling next to me._

_ "But you said this year's tributes were easy, do you see Cato as a threat?" _

_I smirk, "No, not at all, but he would be my biggest completion, but I can take him, easy."_

_Cato coughs, "Excuse me?" _

_We all ignore him._

_ "That was great, Clove, you just do that in your interview and you'll do great." Enobaria congratulates me. "Next up, walking lessons with Ellen for you Clove," Enobaria scrunches up her nose, "be prepared for the long day ahead of you."_

_-o_o-_

_Ellen has put me in like 20 inch heels, they look ridiculous. I am frowning as I wobble over to Cato,"Look at you," he smiles deviously at me. "You're almost as tall as me." _

_"Oh, shut up before I decide to punch out your teeth." I hate these heels._

_"Ok," says Ellen in her happy voice, "Now go put this on." She is holding a bright pink dress out for me to wear. _

_ "There is no way in hell I'm wearing that, that thing." I say in disgust. _

_Ellen glares at me and I glare straight back. "Oh, come on," Ellen sounds exasperated. "It's the latest fashion." _

_"No way, I'd rather be married to Satan than wear that." I shiver at the thought of wearing the dress. _

_"Put. The. Damn. Dress. On." Ellen says. _

_"No," I fold my arms. "I'm already wearing your outlandish heels, I will not put on that." _

_"Fine then you can wear my hair dress." _

_"Hair dress?" _

_"It's made from hair," Ellen says happily, "I would wear it but it's too small on me." Gross, I feel like I might puke. _

_"Fine I'll put on the stupid dress," I yank the pink blob from Ellen's grasp, and hobble off to a bathroom around the corner. _

_When I return, Cato looks at me and has a mixture of disgust and laughter on his face. I am wearing a very short pink dress with a pink train and with shapes coming out at all angles. I narrow my eyes at Cato and give him a look that says, 'if you make one noise I swear I will kill you'. He doesn't laugh._

_"Alright, I have your thing on," I say, my mood seeping into my voice. "Now what?" _

_"Walk to that cabinet and back." Ellen says, I obediently walk towards the cabinet slowly and wobbly. "No, no, you're doing it all wrong!" Ellen shrieks. _

_I just glare at Ellen, "then how should I do it?" _

_"Like this," Ellen walks with her hands out at her sides and with prissy little steps. _

_"No, there is no freaking way that I'm walking like that, especially on TV." _

_"Yes, there is a freaking way," Ellen responds, "because you are going to."_

_"No, I'm not." I shake my head, I would be the laughing stock of 2, and when I get back, they can just replay it over and over again._

_"Yes, you are." _

_"No way in hell." _

_"Do it!" Ellen screeches. _

_ "NO!" I exclaim._

_"I don't even know how you are considered a female," Ellen huffs, "you walk like a man and you look like one." _

_"You know what?" I'm thoroughly pissed off now."Screw you, and screw your stupid clothes." I tear off the heels and throw them into the wall behind Ellen, they stick in so it looks like someone tried to walk up the wall. Then I tear the dress off, leaving me in just my under garments, I toss them to Ellen and then stamp from the room._

"I like how you ripped your clothes off," Joce nods in approval. "It puts an emphasis on everything."

I just told them the basics of my memory.

"Anyway, Enobaria gave me a silver dress and heels to wear to dinner so I wore those, it worked out a lot better. Well, you guys saw the interviews and how that went." Joce and Shawna both nod. "Anyway, so during the interview, Glimmer grabbed Cato and pulled him into another room, shutting the door behind her. I wanted to go in after them, but since me and Cato couldn't be in a relationship in front of other people, I couldn't, so I had no idea what was going on in there."

"That bitch!" Jocelyn screams, everyone in the restaurant turns to see what was going on. Jocelyn turns a reddish color and says, "Just having a heated conversation, go back to what you were doing before," Jocelyn motions with her hands, "go, go."

Shawna and I stifle our laughs.

"So anyway, when the interviews were finally over, I opened the door, and Glimmer was lying against Cato where I usually sit, I told Cato Brutus and Enobaria wanted him, which was a complete lie, they were up in our floor watching the interviews. On the whole elevator ride up to the second floor, there was dead silence, I waited for Cato to apologize but he said nothing."

"How are you still with him then?" Shawna asks aghast.

I smile, "Keep listening." Is all I say. "So then I didn't talk to him all through dinner. After dinner when I felt ready to talk to him and hear his side of the story, I walk into his room, with Cato wearing a towel around his waist and Ellen kissing him."

"EW! You shouldv'e broken up with him, along with broken Cato's nose," Shawna tells me.

"As I said before keep listening," I'm still smiling. "So anyway I went out of there in a rage, and found a bunch of steak knives in the dining room. So I went back to my room, arms loaded with steak knives (well a box of them) and locked the door behind me. I then started throwing the knives at the wall next to Cato's room. I could hear Cato's loud banging on my door, but I just ignored it. Then when he went away, I thought he'd actually left, but no, he came back and picked the lock with a knife."

"Stalker level," Joce says, earning a glare from me.

"So anyway we had a bit of an argument and he told me that Ellen kissed him, and he didn't want to kiss her, and that he couldn't get Glimmer off of him. Anyway he told me he loved me."

"That's kinda sweet," Shawna nods.

"But at the same time, he could just be playing you." Joce adds, I slap her in the arm.

"So since the next day was the Games and we weren't sure if we would make it out, so in the passion of the moment…" I trail off, saying we had sex, kinda feels awkward.

"Oh my gods!" Joce is fanning herself like she might faint. "You lost your V card the night before the games!?"

I nod.

"Ohmygodsohmygosmohmygods." Joce is like freaking out right now.

"That's cute," Shawna says smiling.

"I can't believe it! Our little Clove is growing up."

"Um, I'm 2 years younger than you and since when did you become my mom?" I ask.

"Oh, shut up." Joce says, losing all her excitement.

"Anyway, the next morning we were separated in preparation for the Games. The next time we saw each other we were in the Arena. In the Arena we couldn't really act like we had any sort of liking for each other because that would show a weakness to the other Tributes that they could exploit." Shawna nods in agreement. "So we had to act like we disliked eacg other. I'm pretty sure that Cato wasn't happy when I got Peeta into the Alliance, or when I helped bandage his wounds. Even though it was obvious that Peeta actually was in love with Katniss, Cato was still jealous; he's really the jealous type. Then there was the fire and the treeing."

_Everyone turns and runs any way that they can to get away from the hot flames. I'm running as fast as I can to my left, I have no idea where the others went or if anyone is ok. I don't know if I could hear a cannon blast through the screaming of the animals that are also running from the flames. Oh my god, a thought comes to my head, Cato I stop abruptly, the fire is like 10 yards behind me and quickly gaining speed. I can feel its intense heat from here. What if Cato is dead? There's no way that I can survive without him. Then I remind myself that it's highly doubtful that he's dead, and it won't help him if I end up dead. So I turn around and keep running. _

_Then the luckiest thing happens, the cut I got in my side from the stupid Tribute with an axe reopens. I scream in pain and stop, but the momentum that I had causes me to crash into a fallen over tree and trip. I let out a yell of surprise. _

_"Clove!" I hear my name being called, it's Cato. "Clove!" _

_"I'm over here!" I almost scream; the fire is getting closer. I pull myself up, and try to force myself to keep running, towards the sound of Cato's voice. But me running is just tearing the cut open more and more, the heat is not helping the pain. I fall over when I can't run anymore. I see the fire coming, I prepare myself to die. I close my eyes, just then Cato appears at my side. "Clove!" he exclaims. "Clove, open your eyes, please." _

_I obediently open my eyes. _

_"Can you stand?" Cato asks me._

_I shake my head, and wince, shaking my head even made my side hurt. _

_"Alright," Cato says determinedly, he can see the fire coming too. "I'll carry you." Before I can protest or anything, Cato picks me up and carries me bridal-style, it's actually rather embarrassing. But now's not the time to be thinking about looks. Cato runs quickly, away from the fire. I see something coming towards us, a ball of fire, "Cato!" I exclaim. "Duck!" Cato ducks just as the fire ball flies over our heads, causing our hair singe a little. Cato runs away from the flame, neither of us cares where just away to safety, for each other, not ourselves._

_ We eventually end up in a clearing. Cato sets me down on the forest floor, we have no idea where we are, but the fire has died away. I gasp as he sets me down, the pain in my side flaring. We're both coughing furiously from the smoke._

_"Lift up your shirt," Cato instructs. _

_"Are you serious, Cat? I don't think now's the time." I joke, though I life my shirt up so he can see the wound. _

_"Don't you have like a first aid kit in your bag?" he asks me. I nod. _

_Cato walks around and unzips my backpack, pulling out the first aid box. He walks around me, holding the special capitol medicine. Of course, he takes one of my water pouches and a corner of the blanket and wipes the blood away (OW!), then he pours the alcohol on it again, (OW! X10000), puts the medicine on it, (ow) and bandages it. I pull my shirt back down. Cato takes a swig from one of the water pouches. He grins at me, "For once you looking like an idiot carrying this bag with you everywhere is worth it." _

_"I do not look like an idiot," I say defensively, "I look precautious."_

_Cato takes another long sip, "Whatever you say," he's still smiling. _

_Since he's standing and I'm sitting, I am now much shorter than him. I smack his leg, "Oh shut up." _

_He smiles and comes down into a kneeling position, "You feeling better?" _

_'Yeah," I say it's true the medicine is actually helping. "Thank you," I say to him, placing my hand on his left shoulder, Cato winces. "What? What is it?" _

_"Oh, nothing, I just got a little too close to the fire-"_

_"Take off your jacket." I tell him. _

_"Really, it's nothing-" _

_"Take it off," I demand. Obediently Cato pulls off his jacket, revealing a deep burn. I wince at the sight of it and raise my eyebrows at him, "I really need to teach you the definition of nothing." _

_Cato gives me a small smile. _

_I open the first aid kit which is lying in front of me; the expensive burn medicine is still in it in its little pot. I unscrew the lid and slather a generous amount onto Cato's arm. I can literally see him un-tense, he sighs with relief. _

_"Is there anywhere else?" I ask him. _

_"Just a small burn on my leg," Cato admits. _

_"If it's not small, Cat, I swear I will spend 2 days teaching you word definitions, now where on your leg?"_

_Cato pulls up his pant leg; right under his knee is a small burn, "Told you it was small." _

_I roll my eyes, and put some burn medicine on his leg. _

_Just as I'm screwing the lid back on the medicine, 4 people come running into the clearing. I quickly stuff the kit back in my bag and pull out a knife. _

_It's Marvel, Glimmer, Sierra, and Peeta. They all look beaten up and singed. _

_"There you two are!" Sierra exclaims out of breath, her voice is raspy from the smoke, Cato and I have had time to clear out our lungs, apparently they haven't. _

_"We've been running from the fire for the last half an hour and we find you two relaxing in a forest glade?!" Marvel exclaims._

_"No," I say calmly. "We just got here about 10 minutes ago." _

_"Wait a minute," Glimmer narrows her eyes, "What were you two doing?" _

_"We were treating out wounds from the fire," Cato says pulling his jacket back on. It's the truth, though we were also as Chelsey would say 'flirting'. _

_Glimmer is glaring at me, "What?" I ask her innocently. "Is there something wrong with treating wounds?" _

_She turns her head away, I'm guessing because her stupid brain can't come up with a good retort. _

_"Anyway, back on subject," I say cheerfully. "The Game Makers chased us here for a reason, don't you think? The only reason there could be is because not enough people have been killed in the last 24 hours, which also means that they chased at least one tribute over here too. We should go look around." _

_"Alright, that sounds reasonable," Sierra says. _

_Everyone else save Glimmer agrees. _

_Cato holds out his hand for me to take, I take it without a seconds hesitation. He hoists me up, on my feet. _

_"I hear the sound of water." Cato says. "Let's go check that out, that would be one of my first places to go to escape a fire." _

_We all agree and follow Cato to a spring-fed pool where- I almost don't see her, but she's there. Katniss is resting in the pool. I give Peeta a look, he sees her too. Peeta steps on a large branch 'accidently' making a loud cracking noise. Katniss jerks awake. She sees us and splashes out of the pool, and flies into the underbrush by the pond. _

_"There!" Glimmer exclaims in her raspy smoke-inhaled voice, well duh. "There she is! There she is!" Oh my gods of whatever, you are an idiot Glimmer we all see her!_

_We all chase after her, I see she's slowed down, but so are we. _

_"She's mine!" Glimmer exclaims. _

_"Not if I get her first!" Cato replies. "Where you gonna go?" he calls to her, Cato has a special dislike for Katniss since she has showed him up more than once._

_"Mine!" Glimmer exclaims, she sounds like a freaking ass idiot._

_"Someone found a pond!" Sierra calls gleefully, I guess most of them don't like Katniss, since she showed them up, I don't have any different dislike for her I want Glimmer gone more than Katniss. "Someone found a pond!" Do they realize how idiotic they sound right now? They're acting like children. _

_We chase her across the small little pond and into the woods on the other side. "There she is!" Glimmer exclaims again. We know Glimmer you i-d-i-o-t. I bed she doesn't even know how that's spelled. _

_"Yeah!" Marvel replies enthusiastically. _

_"Here we go!" Cato says, what the hell does that even mean? "Where you going, huh?"_

_Katniss has stopped and is frantically looking around. _

_"Get her, Cato!" Glimmer exclaims, oh just shut up already!_

_"All right, let's go!" Cato cries. Oh my god, you're making a fool of our District right now, Cato. I mentally face palm myself while I run. My side is aching. _

_Everyone is whooping and laughing, I join in to look normal. Though, I remember my deal with Peeta, but I'm serious if it comes down to me and Cato or him and Katniss I'll save Cato every time. _

_"Where you going, baby?" Marvel calls out. Have they ever heard of grammar?_

_Glimmer laughs again, it's so perfectly annoying._

_"Three o'clock." Sierra says. _

_We arrive at the base of a tall tree that Katniss is now scaling, she looks in pain. _

_"Way to go, Girl on Fire!" Cato taunts. _

_"We got her!" Glimmer exclaims, no really Glimmer? I just thought that we were chasing her for fun._

_"Miss Everdeen, I'm gonna get you!" Cato exclaims. Even though he's my boyfriend, I really wish that he would just stop talking right now. _

_"That's not going to help you up there!" Glimmer calls up. _

_"Where are you going?" I call; at least I use correct grammar._

_We all stand at the base of the tree while Katniss continues climbing. She stops and stares at us for a while, then she smiles. "How's everything with you?" she calls down cheerfully. This just seems to fuel the fire of hate that the rest of my companions have against Katniss. Everyone else looks taken aback,. _

_"Well enough," Cato calls back up, "Yourself?" _

_ "It's been a bit warm for my taste," ah I see, she's entertaining the Capitol. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?" _

_"I think I will," Cato says. I cover my eyes, I can't watch this, he's way bigger than Katniss, there's no way he can make it up that high. _

_"Here, take this, Cato," Glimmer says, offering Cato her bow and arrows with a flirty smile. I could punch her teeth out right now. _

_I see Katniss staring intensely down at the bow and arrows, I sneak a glance at Peeta, he is watching Katniss with a look of worry and awe on his face. Though, when Katniss tries to make eye-contact with Peeta, he begins to polish the knife he got from the Cornucopia with the edge of his shirt. _

_"No," Cato says, pushing away Glimmer's bow, I inwardly smirk at that. "I'll do better with my sword." It's true he's amazing with the sword. _

_Cato hoists himself up the tree and once he's like 10 feet up, Katniss begins to climb again, scrambling higher and higher, like a squirrel. A big squirrel with braided hair that annoys the heck out of my boyfriend. _

_"Glimmer, stop staring at Cato's ass," Sierra says. You know what? I've decided I like Sierra. _

_Glimmer blushes and looks down. _

_"Go get her, Cato!" I call up to him, what? I'm supporting my boyfriend when I know he'll fail, he needs someone to at least sound as they believe in him._

_"Cato! You're so close!" Glimmer calls up, apparently she got over her blush phase. _

_"Kill her!" I call, Peeta gives me a glance, what? I know Cato won't make it anyway. _

_"Come on, Cato!" Glimmer calls. Ugh! Shut up already! _

_"She's right there!" Marvel calls. _

_"Go, Cato!" Sierra calls, kinda sounds like she's saying 'go team!'_

_"He's got you." Glimmer calls. _

_"Kill her Cato!" I yell, "Kill her!"_

_"Go! Go!" Marvel yells. _

_"Take her down!" Sierra calls. _

_"You got this, Cato!" Glimmer calls, no… he really doesn't._

_We all hear a crack, and see Cato flailing down towards us, and we all have the good sense to back up, even Glimmer. Cato hits the ground, hard, it takes all my strength not to rush to him as Glimmer does. After she makes sure that 'Cato-boo-boo' is ok, Glimmer stands up, and tries to climb the tree. Though, she stops when the branches begin to crack under her feet. Glimmer notches an arrow in her bow. I turn away this is embarrassing. The arrow whizzes past Katniss and gets lodged in a tree near Katniss. Katniss reaches out and grabs the arrow, waving it teasingly above Glimmer's head. I kind of like this girl. _

_Cato moves closer to me, and says angrily, "I know that you can climb the tree."_

_I look at him surprised, yes I can but I'm keeping my promise to Peeta. "I can't, my side," I grasp my non-hurting at the moment side. _

_"Oh," Cato says. "I'm sorry for accusing you," it breaks my heart to lie to him. _

_I know that Peeta can hear us. "Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere." He says, finally some words of truth. "We'll deal with her in the morning." _

_"Fine," Cato growls. "Somebody light a fire." He shoves his way past Peeta. _

_Turns out I get to be the one to light the fire, joy. We are all grouped around the fire and eating a few apples, crackers, and other things from my bag, not so useless now is it? Peeta this whole time is staring up at Katniss, I watch as he absentmindedly takes a bite from his apple. _

_The sun has set and we are all sitting camped beneath this tree with a nice warm fire. Glimmer is flirting with Cato and he is smiling back at her and like burning his sword for I have no clue. Once ac cocky arrogant showoff always a cocky arrogant showoff. I turn away from the two of them, and pull out a few knives. A lizard is passing by so I figure why not? I throw my first night knife and it hits the lizard just below its neck, killing it. Just to practice aiming I throw a few more knives, I hit the lizard's small body every time. _

_The anthem plays, and the Capitol seal appears in the sky. No deaths today, but I hope us treeing someone will entertain the Capitol before the Game Makers decide to send something else in. After a while of Cato heating up the tip of his sword, Sierra fiddling with grass blades, Marvel just sitting there blankly, we all decide to go to sleep, leaving Glimmer to stay awake and guard. Glimmer has a full night's sleep last night so she should be able to stay up tonight. _

_I don't bother taking out my sleeping bag, I'm sleeping next to the warm fire on a soft bed of leaves and pine needles and such. Actually the real reason is that I know that Katniss is smart, if I need to run, I don't want to have to jump out of a sleeping bag. I will never place my full trust in Glimmer to guard me in my sleep, more like let someone cut my throat out. I keep a knife tight in my grasp just in case._

"Ugh then Katniss dropped that Tracker Jacker nest on you guys, she was such a bitch," Joce says.

"Well, in Katniss's defense, we had treed her," I point out.

"You're defending someone who dropped a Tracker Jacker nest on you?" Joce asks.

"Well, no, I'm just being fair." I say.

Joce rolls her eyes.

"So after the Tracker Jackers we got those leaves," I say.

"We as in you and Cato," Shawna points out.

"Yeah."

"You guys should really get super vision when you are together, it looks like every time you're 'alone' you try and screw each other." Joce says.

"Says the girl who's probably screwed like 30 guys this week," I retort.

"Two shay," Joce says.

"So anyway we got back and blah blah blah. We went swimming and stuff, then we saw that stupid fire smoke. And we went out after it, Sasha kissed me, Cato saw, blah blah blah, Cato killed Sasha for kissing me and letting the supplies be blown up. Then we went hunting and the Alliance got broken when we kicked Marvel out. Then me and Cato had that fight."

"You should have dumped him after that," Joce says, Shawna nods in agreement.

_"Come to finish me off?" I ask, back still turned to him. _

_Cato walks into the clearing where I'm sitting by the fire, "No, I uh." he pauses at a loss for words. "I came to… apologize?" He says it as a question, has he never said an apology before?!_

_"Continue," I say, I've already forgiven him, but I want to hear Cato stumble through the apology more. _

_"I'm um… sorry that I cut you…" Wow that sounds wrong. "I just get into uh... Raging fits sometimes and I can't control them." _

_"You got that right," I mutter so that Cato can't hear me, but the rest of Panem can. _

_"So, would you please forgive me for being an asshole?" Cato asks. _

_"Fine," I say, I can hear Cato let out a breath. "But," I say. "Only if you say, I am a jealous-arrogant-ass-like-dick and Clove is the best thing that ever happened to me."_

_"Do I have to?" Cato complains. _

_"Yes," I smirk, _

_"I am a jealous-arrogant-ass-like-dick and Clove is the best thing that ever happened to me." Wow, Cato really does want me back. _

_"Wow, I didn't think you'd actually say it," I say, surprised. _

_"Well, it's not like any part of it isn't true," Cato says, as he comes and sits beside me. _

_I look at him, surprised. _

_"What?" Cato asks me, the firelight casting shadows on his handsome face. _

_"Nothing," I say, turning back towards the fire, an awkward silence follows. _

_After a while, "Are you seriously hurt?" Cato asks. _

_"I'll live," I shrug. _

_Cato winces like I've punched him in the tender spot. _

_"I'm fine, Cat, don't worry about me." I say, using his nick-name so he knows I hold no grudges against him._

_Cato looks at me for a long time, his blue eyes studying me. _

_"Stop staring," I say, "It's creepy."_

_Cato smiles at that, "It's loving," he objects. _

_"Creepy."_

_"Loving."_

_"Creepy."_

_"Loving."_

_"Creepy."_

_"Loving."_

_"Loving."_

_"Creepy."_

_"Ha!" I jump up, "I got you, again."_

_"Oh, shut up," Cato says smiling. "So… did you kill Marvel?" Well there's a happy subject._

_"No, you?" _

_"Nope, otherwise I wouldn't have asked." _

_"Oh, shut up," I say, repeating Cato's exact words. _

_Cato smiles, "did you hear the announcement-?" _

_"How could I not? It was echoing through the entire Arena."_

_"Well if you deaf – "_

_ "We can both go home." I say seriously._

_"Yeah," Cato's smile gets bigger, "We can both go home, together." _

_I lean forward and kiss him; I can hear the people back in 2 groaning right now. Plus Joce jumping up and down, clapping and Shawna talking on and on about what a bad strategy it is to be in love in the games…._

_"So…" Cato says, "Do you still have that sleeping bag?" _

_"Ha! See? Carrying the backpack around wasn't such a bad idea!" I exclaim._

_"Meh, I wouldn't do it."_

_"Why? Because it would ruin your masculinity?" _

_"No –"_

_"Yes," I say teasingly, poking him in the stomach, "Ow!" I fake my finger being hurt. "I just poked my finger into a rock!" I shake my hand. _

_Cato laughs, "You poked the rock," he indicates his abs, "not me." _

_"Well, you didn't have to make them that hard," I poke him again. _

_"Yeah, I did," Cato says, "if it gets hot girls to keep poking me, it's worth it." _

_I roll my eyes at him, Cato smiles innocently back at me. _

_"So, what are we going to do from here on out?"_

_"Why, Clove, I can't believe you'd ask that," Cato pauses. "We go hunting, of course."_

"Then as you guys saw, hunting was rather unsuccessful."

"Actually when it was live, we mostly saw Katniss and Peeta in the cave kissing and making love." Joce informs me.

"Sounds fun." I tell her.

"Uh-huh."

"Then 5 died, and the next day was the final show down, that was horrible. Especially the whole stunt that the Capitol pulled with the berries."

"Yeah, that was bitchy," Shawna says.

"At that moment I just wanted to go and tell President Snow that he was a lonely evil asshole," Joce tells me, no filter, she just has no filter.

"So neither Cato nor I could live without each other so we decided to kill ourselves so we could be together, we never dreamed that the Capitol would stop us. Anyway they did stop us, but it caused some trouble."

"What trouble?" Shawna asks curiously, she likes knowing all the factors.

"The Capitol feels like we just did the whole dying stunt to embarrass them, so they are going to punish us, somehow."

"WHAT?!" Joce yelps. "You two were just doing it for love I'm going to go and tell President Snow that he should go and stick his gigantic evil- "

"Um, Joce?" Shawna says.

"Yes?!" Joce is still mad.

"You should probably shut up, you're disturbing the restaurant again."

"Oh, right."

"So, be careful you two ok, I don't want you guys getting tangled up in this mess." I tell my two best friends.

"Well, we're your best friends, and we love you, so we can't let you face this problem alone." Shawna says, Joce nods.

"I won't be alone, Cato's going through this with me too." I tell them.

"Gods!" Joce exclaims. "I feel like you've replaced us, Clove, I really do. All you really talk to us about has Cato in it, and we never hang out anymore since you're always with him."

"I'm sorry," I tell them, and I really mean it. "I just don't want to mess up your guys' lives over a stupid mistake that I made."

"Clove, you're our best friend, we don't care if you are in trouble with the Capitol or you messed with the wrong people, we'll always be there for you." Joce says.

"We love you Clove, friendship isn't where you leave when it gets tough, it's where you stay with each other and help each other through it, so yeah, like Joce said we'll always be there for you." Shawna tells me, I can feel tears brimming in my eyes.

"I don't want you two to get in trouble," I tell them.

"Please," Joce says, "We're the experts at getting in and out of trouble."

I smile, tears are falling down my face but I don't care. "You guys would really stay with me even if it means risking losing everything?"

"Of course," Shawna says, smiling.

**I'm back! I had a really fun time during spring break, ****J I hope all you guys who've had spring break recently did too. **

**Sorry about all the post-skipping days. I just sorta lost inspiration in the story and I'm just bored with it. But I hate it when people discontinue stories so I'm going to _try_ not to do the same. **

**Review!**

**Sneak Peek on my website!**

**~Bookfanic~**


	16. Chapter 16: Mall talk

**Clove's POV**

_2 months later_

"So, Joce, finding any guys that you might actually go out with?" I ask. Joce, Shawna, and I are sitting in the food court in the mall, investigating the guys trying to find someone that Joce might go out with. Cato and I quit teaching training, well, because I wanted more time with my family, friends, and Cato.

"Nope," Joce says.

"What about that guy?" Shawna asks, pointing at a boy with light brown hair, wearing a green T-shirt.

"Ugh, no, his shirt is so last season." Joce says, picking her nails and not even looking up.

Shawna and I exchange an eye roll, Joce is the one who likes to come to the mall and look at guys, but she never actually considers going out with one of them, though, sometimes she'll 'mysteriously' disappear for 5-10 minutes.

"Him?" Shawna points at a boy with black hair wearing a white T-shirt with his back to us.

"Nope."

The boy turns around, it's Ethan.

"Hey Ethan!" I call across the food court.

Ethan looks in my direction and smiles, he makes his way over. "Hey, Clove, Jocelyn, and Shawna."

"What's up?" I ask him.

"Oh, I'm here shopping with my sister, Katrina." He points over to a girl with black hair wearing a purple sundress deep in conversation with a handsome-looking boy with blonde hair.

"Just Katrina?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"And her boyfriend, Mark." Ethan finishes. "I felt kinda like a third wheel with them, wonder why." He points again, it looks like Katrina and Mark are trying to suck each other's faces off.

"Well isn't that… fun." I say.

"Yeah," Ethan says, "So much fun."

"Well, you can sit with us if you want; we're just getting something to eat."

"Sure," Ethan shrugs, and pulls the chair out beside me, plopping into it.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Joce asks me.

I shrug.

"3:30," Shawna informs Joce.

"OH MY GODS!"

"What?!" I ask Joce.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO MEET MY BROTHER IN, NOW!" Joce exclaims.

"Well, go!" I tell her.

Joce grabs her hand bag off the table, and grabs Shawna's arm. "Ow! What?!" Shawna asks.

"You're coming with me; I'm not handling my brother freaking out alone."

"Why not Clove?" Shawna complains.

"Because Clove has a friend here, you on the other hand don't." Joce pulls Shawna from her seat.

"I'm Clove's friend!" Shawna says, pulling herself out of Joce's grasp.

"Yeah, but if Clove leaves you'll be left with someone you don't even know so let's _go_." Joce says, she grabs Shawna's arm and drags her from the food court.

"Uh, well…" I say, turning to Ethan.

"That was… interesting." Ethan says, smiling crookedly.

"Yeah, they're weird I should seriously get some new friends."

Ethan laughs. "You do see my sister right."

I look back over, Katrina and Mark look like they might start stripping in front of all of us, I know the experience, and it's not very comfortable afterwards.

"So Ethan how's training going?" I ask him.

"Heck, it's boring now that you and Cato stopped doing it." Cato and I stopped doing training, because it got kinda boring.

I laugh, "Yeah it probably got a whole lot more peaceful though."

"Peaceful is for boring people." Ethan informs me.

"Oh is it?" I ask him.

"Yeah, you only live once, why not live it to the full extent?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I say, thinking of the Capitol.

"Well, yeah I'm right, why wouldn't I be?" Ethan asks, smiling.

"Because, I'm always right." I inform him. "Hasn't anyone told you?"

"No, no one has," Ethan grins. "Guess I was misinformed."

"I guess you were." I tell him back, cracking into a smile.

-0_0-

"Mmmm," I say, liking my mint chocolate chip ice cream. "I love sugar."

"I can tell," Ethan laughs, "That's your third ice cream cone."

"Hey, stop judging me." I say defensively to him.

"I'm not judging you; you just seem to eat a lot of ice cream." I can still hear the smile in Ethan's voice.

"I thought you only live once so why not make the most of it?" I ask him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean eat all of the ice cream in the world." Ethan points out.

"Yeah well for me it does," I say, laughing. It's been a fun afternoon with Ethan, we went hiking for a bit on the mountains, and afterwards Ethan said he'd buy me ice cream, he probably didn't anticipate just how much though.

The sun is just beginning to go down. The sunset looks beautiful, and mixture of soft orange, with pink and yellow.

"So are you excited for the Victory tour?" Ethan asks.

"That's in 3 months." I point out to him. (A/N I'm not exactly sure when the Victory tour is in the book but let's just say it got extended for little whole after the Games)

"Still are you?" Ethan asks.

"No, I don't feel like rubbing it in people's faces that I've killed their kids."

"True, true." Ethan agrees.

"Well, I should get going now, Cato and I have a date in," I check my watch. "One hour."

"One hour's in a long time." Ethan points out to me.

"Not when you have to get ready." I say. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Ethan's earlier happiness seems to have been sucked away.

"I'll meet you at… the park, ok?" I ask him.

"Sure…" Ethan says. I'm not really sure what's wrong with him.

"Well….. Bye." I say, walking towards the Victors Village.

-0_0-

Once I get home, I shower, and pick out a dress. Tonight I'm wearing a red dress with black boots and my hair up in a fancy-ponytail. I wear a minimal amount of make-up.

Someone is knocking on my door; huh I wonder who that could be. I hurry down the stair from my room and open it, Cato stands in the doorway, wearing a black tuxedo suit and holding a bouquet of peonies.

"Are those for me?" I ask him.

"Well duh, who else would they be for?" Cato asks back.

"Wow you just totally ruined what could have been a romantic moment there, nice one Cat." I tell him, smiling.

"Yeah well, Romance isn't really my thing." Cato says.

I smirk, "It's not mine either."

-0_0-

Cato blindfolds me (which makes me extremely suspicious) and makes me walk somewhere with him.

"Can I take it off now?" I ask.

"Nope."

"Can I take it off now?"

"Same answer as before."

"Same question as before."

Finally Cato lets me take the blindfold off, I'm standing on the roof to the Training Center, and there are lights all around, and in the middle, overlooking 2, there's a table with candles (not the sticks because those would just be blown out) and a meal.

"Wow," I say. "You know we really could change out thing to romantic if you do this for every date we have."

"Yeah, well then it's probably only going to be a one-time thing." Cato tells me.

"Oh, come on." I complain. "I like romantic."

"Yeah, well I like other things."

I slap Cato in the arm.

"Hey I didn't say what type of other things; you just have a dirty mind!"

I slap Cato in the arm again.

"Yeah you really can't do romance, never mind." I conclude.

"Well now that we have that clear up, Clove do you want to eat the food? Because it's probably going to get cold if we don't eat it."

"And the whole romantic vibe disappears." I mutter.

-0_0-

Dinner was nice, it was spaghetti (thank goodness not from the same plate like some movie I saw once) and Cato and I talked throughout the whole thing, about the Capitol, the Victory Tour and other useless things.

"I noticed Amara's been hitting on you more, recently." I say after dinner, Cato and I are standing next to the side 'wall' of the top.

"Yeah, well I have a girlfriend." Cato tells me.

"Really?" I ask. "Is she nice?"

"Yeah, and beautiful." Cato says, wrapping his arms around me.

"Sounds like you're extremely lucky to have her." I say.

"Yeah, well I'm going to be extremely lucky if I get to keep her too." Cato says. I'm not sure what he means.

-0_0-

Cato lies next to me, asleep, I stare up at the ceiling of my room, I wonder what happens after you die, is there an afterlife? Or is it just like eternally sleeping? Or are you reborn? I have no idea, and I fear death, I don't want to die, and I defiantly don't want Cato to die. But that just might happen because of the Capitol, because of one stupid little incident when I should have just killed myself. I'm not going to lose Cato and I'll do anything to keep him alive.

**I'm just losing inspiration on this story, actually I'm kinda starting to get bored of it…. But I hate it when stories get discontinued… Maybe I'll have to put this on Hiatus IDK. **

**Sneak Peek actually up on my website. **

**Xoxo**

**Bookfanic**


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